Teleology is the philosophical study of purpose. Telos is Greek for 'end', 'purpose', or 'goal'. Teleology has a long history, going as far back as Aristotle (maybe farther), and serves as a goal- or purpose-oriented explanation for why things are the way they are.
Aristotle talks about four types of explanations: the material, formal, efficient, and final causes. The material cause deals with the matter of which the thing is composed. The formal cause deals with the form or design of the thing. The efficient cause deals with the agent by which the thing is made. The final cause is the telos of the thing, the purpose for which it was made.
I often think of these in terms of how we understand the question of why. If, for example, I ask, "
why is the sun hot?", I might understand the question in various ways, leading me to give very different answers. Note the answers below are illustrative only and are not intended to be statements of absolute truth.
- Material: the sun is largely made of hydrogen
- Formal: the sun was designed to be hot
- Efficient: heat is generated by fusion, primarily by fusing hydrogen into helium
- Final: the sun is hot in order to warm the earth and make life possible here
My answer for the material cause above is meaningless unless paired with the efficient cause, as the presence of hydrogen by itself (the primary material contributing to the heat) is not a sufficient explanation for the heat. An alternative answer might be to say that the sun is made of heat, though that wouldn't make much sense in our modern world.
The formal cause here isn't very useful either. I could have said the sun is a sphere, but that has nothing to do with its heat.
An alternative answer of the efficient cause might be to say that God designed the sun to be hot. But I have chosen the more scientific answer to illustrate something.
In our modern world, we tend to favor the material and efficient causes as explanations when approaching a subject logically and rationally. Science favors the combination of these causes to explain various phenomena. In scientific explanations and modern philosophical discussions, we tend to de-emphasize the formal and final causes. But as human beings, we connect well with the narrative implied by the final cause. The final cause connects things to their purpose.
If we focus on the telos, or final cause, we may feel we need to explain everything that occurs by some ultimate, grand purpose of life. If we pursue the teleological chain to its logical end, it may lead us to God as the prime mover or something similar. With such a focus, we may become inclined to offer mystical or supernatural explanations for the efficient cause rather than the purely rational, naturalistic explanations typically offered by science. I'm not suggesting this is a bad thing; it's just an observation.
Teleological explanations can be satisfying to the soul, giving us a feeling of purpose in our lives. That can have a big psychological benefit up to a point. But the need to offer a teleological explanation to everything can also be a huge psychological burden. It's exhausting and can become crippling. Life is a complex web of interconnected beings, objects, and forces whose actions all affect one another in unknown ways. To seek an answer to the question 'why' for anything and everything that might happen in our lives may seem pious to the devout religionist - it's a natural response to a belief in an omnipotent God. If God can control everything, then surely there is a reason that this particular thing is happening to me right now. But that obsession with explaining everything can leave us mentally whirling in endless circles with no real benefit.
Sometimes things just are. There's no why. There's no because. They just are.
Why does the wind blow? Because it does. It didn't blow in order to make you cold. It didn't blow to break your umbrella so you would get wet in the rain. It didn't blow to make you feel good on a hot day. It just blew. It's what it does.
I'm reminded of the song "Roll the Bones" by Rush. To roll the bones means to toss the dice. Lyrics from the song: "Why does it happen? Because it happens. Roll the bones." Toss the dice. Play the game. Live your life. Don't worry about the why. It happened. It's your turn. Roll the bones.
There's a lot of wisdom in that. It's not an attitude of 'I don't care.' It's a purposeful move beyond telos to a life that is lived fully, in the present moment. Getting caught up in the teleology of everything only pulls us out of our lives and gets us stuck in our heads.
So don't worry about the purpose of everything. Let it go. And live your life fully. Joyfully. Every moment.
But that's hard. Teleology, or purpose, is important to us psychologically. What if we can't just let go? How do we handle the question of why? Maybe one answer is that the purpose of this moment is simply to have the experience you're having. Perhaps experience is its own purpose. Each new experience, whether we label it good or bad, helps us grow. Maybe that can be the answer to our soul's longing. Maybe teleology doesn't have to connect everything in one massive logical chain. Maybe the telos, or purpose, of this moment is simply ... this moment.
It's a simpler teleology. No causal chain to invent and maintain. This moment is the purpose. Just this.
