Teleology

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani starts from the telos as what is not there: representing to oneself, beyond the here and now, what the thing is for, like the sign "stop in 150 metres"1. He notes that the notion has become repellent in Anglo-Saxon and post-modern thought, which links finalism to totality, then to the totalitarian, and sets it against science2. Against structuralism and neopositivism, he proposes not to abolish teleology but to put it back in its place3. Final causes inscribed in nature were ruined by the scientific revolution; finality remains legitimate in the human and historical world4. Neither the pebble nor God pursues an end: there is finality only in a being that is finite through its body and through death5. His recurring example is the house in the architect's head. He also concludes that a machine has no teleology of its own, and that speaking of its finality hides the finality of its designers.

1. 1La mondanité chez Clouscard - Le monde comme "ruse de la raison"22 Jul 2023 · 21:06
2. 2#5.2 bis FaceBookLive / Questions (1)6 Dec 2018 · 8:48
3. 3#5.9 Kafka Un message impérial29 Jul 2019 · 27:57
4. 4#2 Lénine ou les ailes du rêve18 Apr 2021 · 38:26
5. 5#5.2 ter FaceBookLive / Questions (2) suite à l'Atelier #5.26 Dec 2018 · 39:48

Summary produced automatically from 22 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.