Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/126

* TELEOLOGY. 100 TELEPATHY. world as in some way controlled by intelligent purpose. The question teleology answers in the aflinnative is whether in the universe as a whole, or even in the phenomena of terrestrial organic life, there is some actually conscious being con- trolling the cause of events and shaping it to the realizatiiin of preconceived ends. It is certain that the tendency to interpret actions teleologi- cally appears in very early childhood. But as the child grows older he has a right to criticise the interpretation he previously gave to these ac- tions. The mere fact that it is natural for him in early childhood to do a thing is no proof that in mature life he is justified in continuing to do that thing. The criticism he gives to his early personifications results in the confirmation of some. He is confirmed, for example, in his con- viction that all normal human beings have much the same mental constitution and much the same conscious control over their actions as he. But the increase in knowledge, which bears out his early interpretation of the actions of human be- ings, tends to discredit much of his interpreta- tion of other phenomena. Fetishes tend to dis- appear with mental culture, while, in regard to the animal world, the child-fashioned, rough- and-ready explanation of instinctive action as consciously purposed has become obsolete in scientific circles. But the depersonifying ten- dency of scientific knowledge has been generally offset by the attempt to attribute to the universe at large a purpose which many individual parts of the universe are no longer alleged severally to show. In fact, in its metaphysical aspect the question is removed to a plane where science and scientific considerations are only of secondary importance. In the old argument that the natural world re- veals adjustments which could only have been provided for by the foreseeing wisdom of God, the teleological hypothesis was a form of scientific theory — that is, it was as much a description of the course of events as an interpretation of their causes. As treated in its broadest scope, how- ever, teleology becomes an interpretation of the facts which it is the business of science to de- scribe. Teleology is an interpretation of a par- ticular kind : it argues that the facts which science describes can be adequately accounted for, causally, only by the assumption of an intelligent purpose of which human purpose furnishes the only analog^' which we can understand. This does not mean that the purpose of the iiniverse must be like human purpose, but that a purpose re- sembling human purpose is all that can make it intelligible to us. Teleology, in this sense, and scientific theory in no way conflict. As a matter of fact, they are based upon very different rational principles. Science proceeds in its explanations upon the law of parsimony (q.v.), assuming the fewest pos- sible hypotheses for the maintenance of its struc- tures; teleology, on the other hand, proceeds on the principle of sufiicient reason, which requires the fullest and most satisfactory explanation of phenomena as the probable truth. Again, science is primarily concerned only with the delineation of phenomena, with description of fact; teleology strives to discover a significance in these phe- nomena and facts which shall satisfy all the needs of the human mind. The same facts are dealt with in each case, but the form of their consideration is entirely different. This may be illustrated in the case of the doctrine of evolu- tion, which, for science, is simply the specific statement of certain hypotheses — as, for e.x- aniple, the struggle for existence, the law of the survival of the fittest, etc. — which are supposed to describe the actual descent of animals; tcleo- logically. however, evolution is viewed as a proc- ess planned and controlled by a foreordained intelligence analogous to ours. Frequentlj' sci- entific theory, as in this ease, contains ele- ments of teleologj', but this is due rather to the failure of exact description than to the proper character of scientific treatment. There is no logical interconnection of science and teleology and no possibilit}' of any real contradiction be- tween them. See Materialism; Mechanism. TEL'EOSATJ'RUS (Neo.-Lat., . from Gk. tAcos. teleoss t^Xcios, teleios, complete + aaOpos, sduros, lizard). An extinct crocodile, fossil skeletons of which are found in the Jurassic rocks of Europe. The animal was small and had a much elongated tube-like snout armed with nu- merous small outward-curving teeth. The body was covered by tuberculated scutes. See Ckoco- DILE. TELEP'ATHY (from Gk. t^Xc, tele, afar + irddfia, -iKithciu, from irddos, pathos, feeling). A term coined by members of the Society for Psychical Research : "We venture to introduce the words Tela-sthesia and Telepathy to cover all eases of impression received at a distance without the normal operation of the recognized sense organs." (See Psychical Rese.rcii, So- ciety FOR.) E. Gurney, F. Myers, and F. Pod- more in Phantasms of the Living ( 1886) sav' that "under particular conditions of excitement — the rationale of which we probably do not under- stand, though insensibility and the near approach of death are apparently some of the most effec- tual of these conditions — certain persons seem to have the faculty of communicating to other persons at a distance what is happening to them, often without any intention or consciousness of doing so on their own parts," and further, that "certain small experimental results can be pro- duced," and that "certain impressive spontaneous phenomena are shown to belong to the same class." It seems now to be clearly enough dem- onstrated that only the experimental results are worthy of attention. There are many accoimts of telepathic phenomena of earlier date. Thus the hypnotized subjects of Mesmer were said to have frequently obeyed the silent will of the operator; but all such reports are useless as evi- dence, on account of the lack of sufficient data, the neglect of suitable precautions, and the ignorance of the extreme suggestibility of the hypnotic .subject. So, too, the countless stories as to the feats performed in the popular game of 'mind-reading' are of little significance, once the possibilities of 'muscle-reading' are clearly rmderstood. The actual evidence upon which telepathy now rests is of an extremely fragment- ary nature. It may be classified as (1) experi- mental, the communication from 'agent' to 'per- cipient' of simple visual impressions — diagrams, and color, suit, and number of playing cards, etc.; (2) certain striking cases of the induction of sleep at a distance, notably that of Madame B. or 'Lfonie.' reported by .J. Cichorowicz; (3) sta- tistics of what are known as 'veridical hallucina- tions,' i.e. apparitions of a person to some dis-