Abstract
Mariano Artigas described in The Mind of the Universe that the four main objections
against teleology are that it is invalid, useless, impossible and illegitimate. However, other
writers have argued that teleology was replaced by functionality. They consider teleological
reasoning as an absurd, because it implies that an inexistent future can direct the existent
present. In Artigas’s answer against these objections, he assumes that teleology can be
understood in at least four ways: (i) its purpose as the end of a process, (ii) as the goal of a
tendency, (iii) as the value to a subject or (iv) as the objective of a plan.
In this paper I emphasize the equivalency between the ways to understand teleology and the
objections against them. That is, teleology as objective of a plan and as its illegitimacy; between
teleology as a value to a subject and its uselessness; between teleology as an end of a process
and as its invalidity; and between teleology as a goal of a tendency and as its impossibility.
I also analyze if the four meanings of teleology and there equivalencies are sufficient to answer
the objections according to which teleology is replaced by functionality. If this replacement is
true, it supposes that the future is not better than the present. On the contrary, the teleological
reasoning apparently implies that the future state guides the present. Mariano Artigas discusses
this proposal, and I evaluate his answer to figure out if it is possible to assume a place to
teleology in the present-day philosophy of nature.
References
Artigas, M. (2000). La mente del universo. EUNSA.
Artigas, M. (2001). The mind of the universe: Understanding science and religion. Templeton Foundation Press.
Boyle, R. (1688). Disquisition about the final causes of natural things. [El artículo no proporciona datos editoriales].
Hume, D. (1779). Dialogues concerning natural religion. [La cita remite específicamente a la parte II].
Hunter, M. (Ed.). (2004). Robert Boyle reconsidered. Cambridge University Press.
Nagel, E. (1979). Teleology revisited and other essays in the philosophy and history of science. Columbia University Press.
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