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dysteleology
[ dis-tel-ee-ol-uh-jee, -tee-lee- ]
noun
- Philosophy. a doctrine denying the existence of a final cause or purpose.
- the assumed absence of purpose in life or nature.
- the evasion or frustration of a natural or normal function or purpose.
dysteleology
/ ˌdɪstɛlɪˈɒlədʒɪ; -tiːlɪ- /
noun
- philosophy the denial of purpose in life Compare teleology
Derived Forms
- ˌٱˈDZDz, noun
- ˌٱˈDz, adjective
Other yvlog Forms
- ·ٱ···Dz·· [dis-tel-ee-, uh, -, loj, -i-k, uh, l, -tee-lee-], adjective
- t··DZo· noun
yvlog History and Origins
Origin of dysteleology1
Example Sentences
Dysteleology, dis-tel-ē-ol′o-ji, n. the doctrine of purposelessness, or denial of 'final causes:' the study of apparently functionless rudimentary organs in animals and plants.—adj.
Häckel has given admirable discussions on this whole subject, under the title of Dysteleology, in his ‘Generelle Morphologie’ and ‘Schöpfungsgeschichte.’
Development of organic types, 146 Dicotyledons, appearance of, 220 Diderot—on evidence of intelligence in Nature, 125 Dinotherium, classification of, 259 n Dogs, their vocal expression of emotions, 73 Du Bois-Reymond, Herr,—on the "Seven Enigmas," 31-33; on the progress of human development, 68, 69; on Haeckel's genealogies, 264 Dysteleology, 190 Ear, structure of, 93 Electrons, 42 Elephant and Tortoise of Hindu astronomy, 107 Embryology and Evolution, 158-160, 192 seq.
The men who maintain that wings were not planned for flight, but that flight has produced wings, and thousands of like propositions, are simply amusing themselves with paradoxes to which may very properly be applied the strange word devised by Haeckel to express his theory of nature—Dysteleology, or purposelessness.
Haeckel went so far as to propose to describe by the term "dysteleology" that part of the science of Biology which collected the facts that gave direct contradiction to the idea of beneficial "purposive arrangement."
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