dysteleology
Americannoun
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Philosophy. a doctrine denying the existence of a final cause or purpose.
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the assumed absence of purpose in life or nature.
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the evasion or frustration of a natural or normal function or purpose.
noun
Other Word Forms
- dysteleological adjective
- dysteleologist noun
Etymology
Origin of dysteleology
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Dysteleology, dis-tel-ē-ol′o-ji, n. the doctrine of purposelessness, or denial of 'final causes:' the study of apparently functionless rudimentary organs in animals and plants.—adj.
From Project Gutenberg
Häckel has given admirable discussions on this whole subject, under the title of Dysteleology, in his ‘Generelle Morphologie’ and ‘Schöpfungsgeschichte.’
From Project Gutenberg
Development of organic types, 146 Dicotyledons, appearance of, 220 Diderot—on evidence of intelligence in Nature, 125 Dinotherium, classification of, 259 n Dogs, their vocal expression of emotions, 73 Du Bois-Reymond, Herr,—on the "Seven Enigmas," 31-33; on the progress of human development, 68, 69; on Haeckel's genealogies, 264 Dysteleology, 190 Ear, structure of, 93 Electrons, 42 Elephant and Tortoise of Hindu astronomy, 107 Embryology and Evolution, 158-160, 192 seq.
From Project Gutenberg
The men who maintain that wings were not planned for flight, but that flight has produced wings, and thousands of like propositions, are simply amusing themselves with paradoxes to which may very properly be applied the strange word devised by Haeckel to express his theory of nature—Dysteleology, or purposelessness.
From Project Gutenberg
Haeckel went so far as to propose to describe by the term "dysteleology" that part of the science of Biology which collected the facts that gave direct contradiction to the idea of beneficial "purposive arrangement."
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
