The general scheme of teleology, in the Aristotelian universe view of things, according to which all things in the universe have a tendency to move to their optimal or desired location, just as fire tends to rise, and earth tends to sink.

“The teleological idea or the concept of purpose is involved in several physical principles, notably Hamilton’s principle and the related but identical principle of least action, Hertz’s principle of the straightest path, Gauss’ principle of least constraint, and Fermat’s principle of least time. They all effectively state that things take place in the physical world, e.g. the motions of systems of particles, in such a way as to make a certain function assume a stationary value under certain boundary conditions, usually a minimum as compared with all possible values satisfying the given conditions. For example, Hamilton’s principle says that for a conservative dynamical system the motion between any two instants of time is such that the time integral of the difference between the kinetic and potential energies taken between these two instances has a stationary value. It has as if the system had a certain purpose to satisfy.”

“With respect to the possible idea of purpose involved philosophers have argued that since Hamilton’s principle is not necessary for the deduction of the actual motion of the dynamical systems, i.e. the Newtonian or Lagrangian equations are fully adequate, we have no real logical ground for insisting that nature imposes a teleological requirement on motions in our experience. Nevertheless the fact that one can exhibit the principles of mechanics in a teleological guise is persuasive, since it serves to tie physical principles with an idea basic to the interpretation that human beings give too much of their ordinary experience, particularly in their relations with other human beings.

A rational individual is said to arrange his actions so as to be sure of achieving his fundamental desires, whether it be to accumulate wealth or gain power over his fellow men. In particular the aim here is almost always to try to attain the given desired end at minimum cost in human effort. This strongly suggests a heuristic connection with the minimum principles of physics.”

“I feel profoundly convinced that the argument of design has been greatly too much lost sight of in recent zoological speculations. Reactions against the frivolities of teleology, such as are to be found, not rarely, in the notes of the learned commentators on Paley's Natural Theology, has, I believe, had a temporary effect in turning attention from the solid and irrefragable argument so well put forward in that excellent old book. But overwhelmingly strong proofs of intelligent and benevolent design lie all around us, and if ever perplexities, whether metaphysical or scientific, turn us away from them for a time, they come back upon us with irresistible force, showing to us through nature the influence of a free will, and teaching us that all living beings depend on one ever-acting creator and ruler.”

— William Thomson (c.1900) (Ѻ)

“The Aristotelian viewpoint still prevails to some extent in biology, namely that an animal moves only for a purpose, either to seek food or to seek its mate or to undertake something else connected with preservation of the individual or the race. The Aristotelians had explained the process in the inanimate world in the same teleological way. Science began when Galileo overthrew this Aristotelian mode of thought and introduced the method of quantitative experiments which leads to mathematical laws free form the metaphysical conception of purpose. The analysis of animal conduct only becomes scientific in so far as it drops the question of purpose and reduces the reactions of animals to quantitative laws.”

— Jacques Loeb (1918), Forced Movements, Tropisms, and Animal Conduct

“The causality of history is teleological.”

— Alfred Kroeber (1915), “Eighteen Professions” [1]

“Teleology is like a mistress to a biologist: he cannot live without her but he’s unwilling to be seen with her in public.”

— John Haldane (c.1930s), supposedly, a requote of something said in the 1880s by Ernst Brucke [2]

“Frequent unqualified references to the principle of minimum entropy production, [are] quite often used to bolster teleological arguments.”

— Irvin Richardson (1968) [3]

“External teleology is dead in biology.”

— John Wilkins (1997), “Evolution and Philosophy: Is There Progress and Direction in Evolution? (Ѻ)

“Fundamental teleology is a dead option in physics and chemistry.”

— John Hawthorne and Daniel Nolan (2005), Bellingham Summer Philosophy Conference [4]

“In sociology, the terms of the debate have since been fundamentally and irreversibly changed, whatever it should be replaced by, teleology is now dead, whether in Hobhouse’s whiggish version of cumulative moral progress, or in Marx’s version of an inevitable dialectic leading from feudalism through capitalism to communism, or, for that matter, in the neo-Spencerian version of cumulative ‘modernization’, or in Weber’s version of inexorable technical rationalization and spiritual disenchantment.”

— Walter Runciman (2005), “Introduction to British Sociology” (Ѻ)