finalistic

To him, as a biologist, the form-giving of the specific life process was the primary paradigm of a finalistic process, but for his epigones the order of the universe and the trend toward its perfection became completely dominant.

Against Darwinism 2009

The existence of a form-giving, finalistic principle in the universe was rightly rejected by Bacon and Descartes, but this, they thought, necessitated the eradication of any and all teleological language, even for biological processes, such as growth and behavior, or in the discussion of adaptive structures.

Against Darwinism 2009

Leibniz maintained that Descartes 'antifinalism led to Spinoza's determinism (we may recall that in the Scholastic tradition of final causation the ideas of free will and providence were linked together; however, we have also mentioned the finalistic determinism of the Cal - vinists).

Dictionary of the History of Ideas ENRICO DE ANGELIS 1968

In the light of the finalistic doctrine as to man, it is evident that the "purpose of life" can have

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 9: Laprade-Mass Liturgy 1840-1916 1913

Never could the finalistic interpretation, such as we shall propose it, be taken for an anticipation of the future.

Evolution créatrice. English Henri Bergson 1900

As to the particular feature which distinguishes mental from physical laws, we can formulate it, as does William James, by saying that the essence of a mental law is to be teleological, or, if the phrase be preferred, we can say that mental activity is a finalistic activity, which expends itself as will in the pursuit of future ends, and as intelligence in the choice of the means deemed capable of serving those ends.

The Mind and the Brain Being the Authorised Translation of L'Âme et le Corps Alfred Binet 1884

However, the formal features cannot be understood without reference to finalistic concepts, which is why a purely formal characterization of life could never succeed.

Uncommon Descent vjtorley 2010

Aristotle and those who followed him closely used finalistic explanations only for living things.

ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science 2008

Mendelsohn made a comment that I completely disagree with - that Aristotelians held that the universe as a whole, physics, was finalistic.

ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science 2008

The first two features would commonly be regarded as formal features of organisms, but as we shall see, they cannot be adequately characterized without reference to the telos of the organisms possessing them, so actually they could be described as both formal and finalistic; while the attribute of embedded functionality can be viewed as an empirical manifestation of both formal and final causality, insofar as it describes the manner in which the structured parts of an organism subserve the interests of the whole.

Uncommon Descent vjtorley 2010