Teleology

Teleology explains processes or structures by reference to ends, goals, or purposes. It distinguishes explanations in which an outcome helps account for something from explanations based only on prior causes.

Teleonomy: The appearance of goal-directed organization produced by mechanisms such as natural selection or feedback. It describes biological goal-directedness without requiring foresight or a cosmic purpose.
Aristotle: An ancient Greek philosopher whose works shaped logic, biology, metaphysics, and natural philosophy. His account of four causes made ends a basic part of explaining natural things.
Natural selection: The differential survival and reproduction of organisms with heritable variation in a particular environment. It produces adaptations that appear designed for ends without foresight.
Adaptation: An inherited trait shaped by natural selection because it improved reproductive success in past environments. Calling a trait an adaptation explains it through effects that contributed to its evolutionary history.
Etiological theories of function: Theories that identify a trait's function with an effect for which it was selected. They ground biological functions in past selection rather than future goals.
Causal explanation: An account of an event in terms of the conditions and processes that bring it about. It explains events through prior causes rather than by citing their ends.
Aristotelian biology: Aristotle's study of living organisms, emphasizing their organized parts and characteristic forms of life. It shows teleological explanation at work in accounts of organs and living activity.
Biological function: The contribution of a biological trait to an organism's activity, survival, or reproduction, or its selected effect. Function claims often explain traits by the effects that account for their presence.
Intelligent design: The claim that some features of life are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than undirected processes. It applies purposive explanation to biological complexity, unlike evolutionary accounts.
Causal-role theories of function: Theories that define a component's function by its contribution to a system's capacity. They preserve functional descriptions without requiring that the contribution explains the component's origin.

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