Editing Teleology (section)

== Modern philosophy ==
{{Expand section|date=July 2021|small=yes}}
{{Main|Teleological argument|Intelligent design|Intelligent design movement}}

In the 17th century, philosophers such as [[René Descartes]] and [[Thomas Hobbes]] wrote in opposition to Aristotelian teleology. The suggestion that there’s more to objects than their materialism was rejected in favor of a mechanistic view of even complex creatures and organisms.<ref name=aeon2024>{{cite web |last1=McShea |first1=Daniel W |last2=Babcock |first2=Gunnar O |title=Elusive but everywhere |url=https://aeon.co/essays/a-new-field-theory-reveals-the-hidden-forces-that-guide-us |date=November 4, 2024 |access-date=November 30, 2024 |publisher=[[Aeon (magazine)|Aeon]]}}</ref> According to Hobbes, writing in [[Leviathan (Hobbes book)|''Leviathan'']]:

{{quote|Life is but a motion of limbs. For what is the heart, but a spring; and the nerves, but so many strings; and the joints, but so many wheels, giving motion to the whole body.<ref>Hobbes, ''Leviathan'', Introduction.</ref>}}

But while science was doing a great job at explaining natural phenomena, it stopped short from explaining how life develops.<ref name=aeon2024/> In the late 18th century, [[Immanuel Kant]] acknowledged this shortcoming in his ''Critique of Judgement'':

{{quote|There will never be a Newton of the blade of grass, because human science will never be able to explain how a living being can originate from inanimate matter.<ref>Kant, 1790, ''Kritik der Urteilskraft''.</ref>}}

The chief instance, and the largest polemic morass, of teleological viewpoint in modern cosmology and ontology is the [[teleological argument]] that posits an [[intelligent designer]] as a [[god]].