telos

See also: Telos, teļos, and τέλος

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek τέλος (télos).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtiː.lɒs/, /ˈtɛ.lɒs/

Noun

telos (plural teloses or teloi or tele or telea)

1. The aim, purpose, or end goal.

   Coordinate term: technos

   • 2005, Mathew Callahan, The Trouble with Music, page 83:

     But confusion persists because of the more contentious issue between the technos and the telos of music and art making in general, the instruments versus the purposes to which they are put, the means and the ends.

   • Keith Ansell-Pearson, quoted in 2014, Paul D. Miller, DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid, Svitlana Matviyenko, The Imaginary App (page 94)

     the collapsing of bios and technos into each other is not only politically naive, producing a completely reified grand narrative of technology as the true agent and telos of natural and (in)human history

   • 2016, Justin Buckley Dyer, Micah J. Watson, C. S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law, page 110:

     In Lewis' view, such societies are cut off from an appreciation of the past, committed to the utopian ideal of unlimited progress, self-satisfied, concerned with technos rather than telos, and skeptical about reason.

Anagrams

• TESOL, lotes, stole, toles

Spanish

Noun

telos pl

1. plural of telo