finalism
(ˈfaɪnəlɪz(ə)m)
[f. final a. and n. + -ism.]
1. The belief that the end or limit has been reached.
| 1883 J. Parker Tyne Ch. 18 The infallibility of this finalism was most obnoxious to a mind so strong-minded. |
2. The doctrine that natural processes (e.g. evolutionary changes) are directed towards some end or goal.
| 1909 W. R. Sorley Interpr. Evol. 24 ‘The organization of nature’, says Kant, ‘has in it nothing analogous to any causality we know’. It is not mechanism; nor, again, is it finalism. 1917 A. S. Pringle-Pattison Idea of God xix. 370 He develops his own account of ‘creative’ evolution in contrast with the two rival theories of mechanism and finalism. 1952 G. Sarton Hist. Sci. I. xx. 515 The purpose of a being is revealed by the study of its genesis and evolution. We are falling back upon the theory of finalism (or teleology). 1966 Philos. XLI. 129 It only leaves the quite obvious streak of finalism in Hegel harder to understand. |