teleological argument

American  

noun

Metaphysics.

1. the argument for the existence of God based on the assumption that order in the universe implies an orderer and cannot be a natural feature of the universe.

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teleological argument British  

noun

1. Also called: argument from design.  philosophy the argument purporting to prove the existence of God from empirical facts, the premise being that the universe shows evidence of order and hence design Compare ontological argument cosmological argument

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

teleological argument

Thomas Aquinas’s Five Ways is known as a teleological argument for the existence of God from the presence of design in experience.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 15, 2022

Our analysis of the development of thought, feeling, and will, has an important bearing on the teleological argument.

From A Review of the Systems of Ethics Founded on the Theory of Evolution by C. M. Williams

But, looking to the "present state of our knowledge," this is merely to change the teleological argument in its gross Paleyian form, into the argument from the ubiquitous operation of general laws.'

From Thoughts on Religion by Charles Gore

We find the natural deep and practical piety of Socrates reinforcing itself with a very full and complete statement of a teleological argument, based upon final cause, or adaptation of means to ends.

From The Basis of Early Christian Theism by Lawrence Thomas Cole

The physico-theological or teleological argument is what is often styled the argument from design.

From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 14 — Philosophy and Economics by Sir John Alexander Hammerton