| 释义 |
tel·e·ol·o·gy
\-jē, -ji\ noun
(-es)
Etymology: New Latin teleologia, from teleo- (irregular from Greek telos end) + Latin -logia -logy — more at wheel
1.
a. : the philosophical study of evidences of design in nature — compare mechanism
b. : the doctrine or belief that ends are immanent in nature (as in vitalism and holism)
c. : a metaphysical doctrine explaining phenomena and events by final causes
2. : the fact or the character of being directed toward an end or shaped by a purpose — used of natural processes or of nature as a whole conceived as determined by final causes or by the design of a divine Providence and opposed to purely mechanical determinism or causation exclusively by what is temporally antecedent
3. : the use of design, purpose, or utility as an explanation of any natural phenomenon
4. : entelechy |