Teleology beyond explanation
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: People often think of objects teleologically. For instance, we might understand a hammer in terms of its purpose of driving in nails. But how should we understand teleological thinking in the first place? This paper separatesmere teleology(simply ascribing a telos) andteleological explanation(thinking something is explained by its telos) by examining cases where an object was designed for one purpose but is now widely used for a different purpose. Across four experiments, we show that teleology judgments and teleological explanation judgments are dissociable, and identify three factors that influenced teleology judgments (and one that did not).
Source: Mind & Language
DOI: 10.1111/mila.12393
Authors: Sehrang Joo, Sami R. Yousif, Joshua Knobe
Institution: Yale University
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3165348602