Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who maintains the doctrine of or studies final causes. Compare ætiologist.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Biol.) One versed in teleology.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun one who studies teleology

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun advocate of teleology

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word teleologist.

Examples

  • Stewart, in short, is a 'teleologist' of the Paley variety.

    The English Utilitarians, Volume I. Leslie Stephen 1868

  • In the Traditional Template, all the non-teleologist has to do is imagine come up with a possible pathway to counter the teleological position.

    Crossroads 2009

  • Aristotle has been traditionally misinterpreted as a cosmic teleologist.

    Against Darwinism 2009

  • Since a front-loading designer would probably always design something that could be used in the present, so that it would survive into the future, a non-teleologist could always argue that Front Loading is empirically vacuous.

    A Tetrahymena Puzzle 2008

  • A non-teleologist would argue that changing the behavior of rats came about how, exactly?

    Brain Parasites 2007

  • A non-teleologist would argue that changing the behavior of rats came about how, exactly?

    Brain Parasites 2007

  • It looks more to me like how a non-teleologist would rationalize a teleological cause/event.

    Dawkins on the OOL 2006

  • What's more, the non-teleologist expects the 'evidence' of a teleological cause to look like something a non-teleological cause might produce.

    Dawkins on the OOL 2006

  • As a non-teleologist, Art expects a non-teleological origin of life.

    Dawkins on the OOL 2006

  • While no non-teleologist should not feel obliged to adopt FLE (or even consider it), neither should any teleologist feel obliged to abandon it or ignore it.

    Another Protozoan and Front-Loading 2006

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • n. One whose moral philosophy is based on achieving an outcome, or equivalently, one whose moral philosophy primarily judges the means based on the end. Contrast deontologist.

    July 17, 2008

  • Most of us would say consequentialist, though.

    July 17, 2008