dysteleology
(ˌdɪstɛliːˈɒlədʒɪ)
[ad. Ger. dysteleologie (Häckel), f. dys-, here taken in privative sense + teleologie teleology.]
The doctrine of purposelessness, or denial of ‘final causes’, in nature (opp. to teleology); the study of apparently functionless rudimentary organs in animals and plants, as held to sustain this doctrine.
| 1874 Mivart in Contemp. Rev. XXIV. 371 Dysteleology is a term which Professor Haeckel, of Jena, has devised to denote the study of the ‘purposelessness’ of organs. 1875 Ibid. XXVI. 950. 1879 tr. Haeckel's Evol. Man I. 109 The science of Rudimentary Organs, which we may call, in reference to their philosophical consequences, the Doctrine of Purposelessness, or Dysteleology. |
Hence ˌdysteleoˈlogical a., relating to dysteleology; showing absence of purpose or design; ˌdysteleˈologist, a believer in dysteleology; one who denies final causes in nature.
| 1874 Mivart in Contemp. Rev. XXIV. 371 Arguments analogous to some of the Dysteleological arguments of today. 1879 tr. Haeckel's Evol. Man I. v. 111 The favorite phrase ‘the moral ordering of the world’ is also shown in its true light by the dysteleological facts. 1883 L. F. Ward Dynam. Sociol. I. 173 (Cent.) Dysteleologists, without admitting a purpose, had not felt called upon to deny the fact. |