Teleology

Etymology

From Greek "telos," "end, purpose, goal," plus "logos," "study of." The term was coined by the philosopher Christian Wolff in 1728, but the idea is Aristotle’s: his “final cause” held that to explain a thing you must state what it is for. Modern science largely replaced such purpose-talk with mechanism — except in biology, where function still earns a careful place.

noun · /tel-ee-OL-uh-jee/
The explanation of things by their purpose or end goal rather than by their causes — asking “what is it for?” instead of “what made it happen?”
What it names
A handle for a habit of mind we slip into constantly: reading purpose into nature or history, as if the eye exists “in order to” see or events unfold “toward” some destiny.
Example
Saying evolution is “trying to” make us fitter is a teleological slip; natural selection has no goal, only outcomes.
Related idea
Determinism explains events by prior causes pushing from behind; teleology explains them by ends pulling from ahead. They are opposite directions of explanation.