Blackwell Reference Online

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The word comes from the Greek telos , meaning purpose. The speculative use of this term, derived from Hegelian and other philosophies of history and imputing a purpose or goal to the whole of human history, generally lost credence in the course of the twentieth century and was attacked by such writers as Popper (1957) and Lyotard (1979) (see H istoricism ). Teleological E xplanation of the behaviour of humans and other higher animals in terms of perceived goals has however become more widely accepted. Whereas P ositivism and B ehaviourism relied on essentially mechanical explanations in terms of antecedent causes, H ermeneutics and R ational choice theory and related approaches (Sartre, 1960; Taylor, 1964 ) have revived the idea that the explanation of human actions must include reference to human intentions and purposes and/or established cultural practices. For R ealism , models of C ausality which focus on the causal powers of entities have also brought explanations of natural events and of human actions into a closer relationship (Bhaskar, 1979). These developments have weakened the sense of a global opposition between causal or genetic and teleological explanation which pervaded nineteenth- and early twentieth-century philosophy and social thought, especially in Central Europe (Adler, 1904; Lukács, 1973). Controversy remains, however, over the apparent reliance ... log in or subscribe to read full text