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“The chicken does not exist only in order to produce another egg. He may also exist to amuse himself, to praise God, and even to suggest ideas to a French dramatist.”
― G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World
Following Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of the end or finality of a thing ― that for the sake of which a thing exists. Aquinas notes the innate directedness of all things. For example, in the world of plants, the tree seeks to grow upward toward the sunlight. Aquinas sees an intelligent source, which he calls God, as the animator and sustainer for this intelligible order.
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Teleology (Aquinas 101) – Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P.
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28 Comments
@kec7116
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMI have reading a medical ethics paper on transhumanism for forever. Its references were so over my head as I have minuscule understanding of philosophy associating the words Frankfurt and continental with European breakfast. This channel and Professor Kreeft’s have been so helpful as cheat sheets allowing me to understand all the various philosophical concepts.
@africanhistory
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMWas he following Aristotle or Ibn Sina? Revisionist already.
@MrContractferal
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMMy eyes need glasses to see.
@crax7936
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMWhy do ya'll wear the dumbest clothes? Good video though, came here looking for a definition. If you wanna capture the youth, quit acting weird with your hard on for wearing particular clothes thing. Act like you have some free will or something. Like I'm sure if you had free will you wouldn't be wearing that, right? Right?!?
@CephaloBooks
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMA dinner spoon seems about the perfect shape and size for carrying a chicken egg around. It must have been designed for exactly that purpose. I can easily break a window with a baseball bat. The bat must have been designed for breaking windows.
@godfreydebouillon8807
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMIn my very short and limited study of classical philosophy that im undertaking, it seems that formal and final cause are so closely related that one must tale care to distinguish the two. What i mean by this is that teleologically, it seems a match is for the purpose of making fire. Pertaining to its very essence, is the eminent causal power of creating fire (along with its other accidents), thus its Formal Cause as well. I suppose this will probably lead to the Teleological final cause being the cause of the formal cause, which acts on the matter to make it a match, which when put in "motion" to be stricken by an efficient cause (like me), creates the change of fire and that whole sequence (per se) cant be infinite.
Am I in the ball park here? Sorta, kinda?
@mrewilson106
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMLucid and vivid
@johnmarkey4862
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMThank you
@Francois15031967
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMIt's not an accident if in many languages "why" is said "what for".
@RickB500
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMPeople tend to mix up function and teleology. But it seems there is a chain of continuity between order-function-teleonomie-teleology. So you don't need a first mover. If you can show that teleology can actually arise within the framework of natural laws, a form of emergence, then Thomas's cosmological proof of God doesn't work.
As far as I know, Thomas was a man of science and wanted to combine the bible with the truth of science. We should do the same, seek the truth and not repeat what Thomas said.
@YTispartofproblem
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMOnly recently have a truly believed in the spiritual, the teleological argument is the one that finally grabbed me
Great work on this video mate👍😉
@MisterItchy
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMThe leap to the requirement of an 'intelligent source' for the order that we see is not valid.
@theplinkerslodge6361
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMOur whole world has turned toward "meaning."
@iqgustavo
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PM🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:22 🎯 Teleology, the idea that everything has an end or purpose, is crucial for understanding things. It's the "for the sake of which" something exists.
01:20 🌿 Teleology isn't limited to conscious intentions; even inanimate and natural things exhibit directedness or tendencies. For example, a match generates heat, a tree grows toward sunlight, and a stone resists being broken.
02:41 🌌 The order and intelligibility in the universe, as discovered by science, suggest an underlying purpose and direction. Aquinas believes this order ultimately comes from an intelligent source, which he calls God.
03:33 🌟 Things are most perfect when they fulfill their natural tendencies or ends. Understanding a thing's purpose helps determine what is good for it and leads to its flourishing.
Made with HARPA AI
@Enigmatic_philosopher
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMHere is a philosophical critique of the video on teleology and some alternative perspectives:
The video presents teleology – the explanation of phenomena by their purpose, ends, or goals – as a sound philosophical principle. However, this viewpoint can be challenged.
First, relying on teleological explanations makes assumptions about inherent purpose in nature that go beyond what can be empirically verified. Causation based on physical laws provides an alternate means of explaining phenomena without invoking unobservable purpose.
Second, the anthropic projection of human goals, intentions, and values onto nature is considered a problematic philosophical approach by many modern perspectives. Natural phenomena can be explained without framing them in terms of goals or intention.
Third, the view of a cosmic hierarchy with lower ends serving higher ones risks justifying social and political inequalities as part of a "natural order." Alternative philosophies emphasize justice, equality, and critique of power structures.
Instead of teleological explanations, philosophies of science provide alternatives like:
– Mechanism – explanations based on laws, forces, and physical causation
– Instrumentalism – theories judged by predictive success, not claims about reality
– Emergentism – complex wholes emerging from simpler interactions
Rather than deriving purpose from assumed ontological principles, these perspectives build explanations from observed evidence and predictive power. The validity of teleological explanations in philosophy remains contested.
@itcsmount6504
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMThomas Aquinas lived in the 1200s A.D. He subscribed to the Nicene Creed and tried to apply logic to the false Neoplatonic premises of the time, derivative of Gnosticism, which itself is a mixture of Christianity and Babylonian Semiramis/Damu worship. This false line of thinking has metastasized into all Protestant and Catholic churches. His mental gymnastics are way off in left field and solve nothing. His circular logic fails to explain why Jesus in Luke 19:40 said the very rocks would cry out. In fact, all things were made spiritually before they were made temporally, and they all obey God. If Thomas Aquinas was placed into a primitive (30-100 a.d.) Christian worship service, which featured a simple sacrament and stories of Jesus, he would not recognize it.
@Jan-c4h3o
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMVery helpful video. Thank you for publishing
@rid_x2556
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMso…. since its all about finding the purpose of something, why is it so hard for people to relate it to God?
isnt it the easiest and most logical conclusion?
@NotLegato
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMstrange philosophy: if i take a match and scrape off most of the flammable material, at what point is it "better" to become a better match, or a better *stick*? a stick is not a match, but a match with all the flammable material removed is definitely no longer a very good match, while it may be a very good small stick. therefore this idea of a 'fundamental' end for an object seems more ambiguous than not.
@dibble2005
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMAquinas took Aristotles thought and ascribed it to himself. Aquinas thought nothing. He took what Aristotle said and plagiarised it.
@TheHeartOfTheHour1
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMWell done. I wish the world could be more civil, and understand that order is all around us. Instead– so many people default to not using the brain they've been given.
@Dominatetowin
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMchucky fuckwaldsterdam once asked me why i fap and i told him i needed to finnabustagram
@leonstenutz6003
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMExcellent! Thank you!
….
Teleology; Moral Teleology; Cause & Effect; Forms, Means, Ends;
@mers3481
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMI was going to share this series of videos with my family but now that you've supported evolutionism, nope.
Actually after having lost my job as a biochemist because of evolutionism, I didn't expect to find a Church prostituting itself with the God of atheists; I mean, that's new in salvation history. I think I'm just going to go back to science and forget the Church.
@RKEntertainment6325
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMNice
@kristindreko1998
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMThank you for this video!
May our Lord Jesus Christ bless you!
@MariEllaOficial
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMBoa explicação! Obrigada por compartilharem conhecimento de qualidade por aqui. Vim pela Academia Atlântico, do Brasil. Mais alguém?
@stahu_mishima
02/12/2025 - 6:01 PMbut you can also see that certain things don't need to have a purpose. when I scream "aaa beh la ableh", it has no purpose, it's just a gibberish. or certain things have many or even unlimited purposes. like, what's the purpose of water? drinkin' it? sure! but also: creating wetness, making rains and whole phenomenon of clouds, water makes oceans, it's crucial in many chemical things etc. etc.
same goes for many many things in world so saying that we can understand/know the exact purpose of said thing is just unrealistic. especially that we're looking from just our perspective and our perceiving of "purpose"