People often think of objects teleologically. For instance, we might understand a hammer in terms its purpose driving nails. But how should teleological thinking the first place? This paper separates mere teleology (simply ascribing telos) and explanation (thinking something is explained by examining cases where an object was designed for one but now widely used different purpose. Across four e...

A proposal for the biological grounding of intrinsic teleology and sense-making through the theory of autopoiesis is critically evaluated. Autopoiesis provides a systemic language for speaking about intrinsic teleology but its original formulation needs to be elaborated further in order to explain sense-making. This is done by introducing adaptivity, a many-layered property that allows organism...

Teleology is a central concept in Hegel's philosophy, but, as is too common in his writing, exactly what he understands under that concept, what role within his philosophy it plays, and how he defends his position remain obscure. Hegel did not come to his position on teleology in a vacuum; it was a topic of major concern to his predecessors as well. Then as now, debate focused both on the quest...