A doctor (while giving me a physical) recently said to me that we needn't have to look for teleological explanations for my condition. I looked at many web sites, but not one could provide a simple and succinct definition of what a teleological explanation means. All the definitions seemed to be written in a sort of philosophical "double talk" involving ends, purposes, design. I have to believe that a very simple and universally understandable definition exists. (As Einstein once said, genius is taking the complex and making it simple.) Here is an example sentence from the New Yorker magazine "One natural objection to the search for Dyson spheres is that it presupposes an endlessly consumptive technological teleology". What does teleology mean in that sentence ? Here is another example sentence from Slate: "Committed to a teleology of progress, albeit open to the reality of historical irony, this liberalism lacks a visceral sense of the tragic." What does teleology mean in that sentence ?

A doctor (while giving me a physical) recently said to me that we needn't have to look for teleological explanations for my condition. I looked at many web sites, but not one could provide a simple and succinct definition of what a teleological explanation means. All the definitions seemed to be written in a sort of philosophical "double talk" involving ends, purposes, design. I have to believe that a very simple and universally understandable definition exists. (As Einstein once said, genius is taking the complex and making it simple.)

Here is an example sentence from the New Yorker magazine "One natural objection to the search for Dyson spheres is that it presupposes an endlessly consumptive technological teleology". What does teleology mean in that sentence ?

Here is another example sentence from Slate: "Committed to a teleology of progress, albeit open to the reality of historical irony, this liberalism lacks a visceral sense of the tragic." What does teleology mean in that sentence ?