Aristotle, one of the greatest ancient Greek philosophers, who has laid the solid foundations of universal philosophy, has bequeathed numerous theories to humanity, including the so-called “Teleology.” According to Teleology, four causes underlie the existence of every being in the world: matter, form, agency and purpose, namely telos in Greek. Purpose is obviously the most significant of the four causes, given that telos constitutes the fulfillment, the completion of the inherent purpose of every being. Telos, which is humans’ ultimate life goal, the leading good for their own selves, derives from a series of human actions and decision-making and completes their nature. According to the philosopher from Stagira, the ultimate termination of human life is not a means of a next purpose fulfillment. On the contrary, the termination itself constitutes the realization of a life worth living. Telos is not an ending, but the completion of every being’s inherent nature. The purpose of human nature is fulfilled, when humans are able to reach their full potential, by experiencing their full physical and intellectual development thanks to the acquisition of virtue.
Nevertheless, what does the fulfillment and the completion of the inherent purpose mean for us, the contemporary human beings? Let’s put the Aristotelian philosophy and theory aside. Human beings, from the time they start perceiving their social environment and locating themselves within it, make informed decisions and resort to actions with the view to attain their goals, either small or ambitious, considerable or trivial, related to their academic record, their activation, their interpersonal relationships. The achievement of their goals offers a sense of euphoria as a reward for man’s toil and endeavor, a sense of fulfillment, to put it differently, self-fulfillment. No matter how entertaining and useful the journey is, from the time of the conception until the final completion, it always aims to telos, the fulfillment of the natural purpose. Although climbing a mountain is a rewarding activity, our gaze always remains devoted to the peak.
All human beings are admired for this kind of dedication. It highlights their passion for fulfillment, which emerges from their personal fights and shapes their personality. The journey to fulfillment requires humans to invest their effort in a laborious and demanding fight. The completion may come once in a lifetime in humans’ minds and maybe not in an absolute or satisfying form. At this point, the superior nature of telos is evident, which seems to be the absolute and elusive completion and is supposed to be a massive phenomenon in every human being’s world. However, the notion of telos does not only imply a superior element. What is optimistic is the fact that it is no more an elusive dream that is achievable merely once or twice in a lifetime. It is not a situation that we have to approach tentatively or mimetically: it is absolutely feasible. Telos is not about the alleged intangible reality, but it is about some moments in our lives inextricably linked to our daily routine. Behind the small and ostensibly trivial goals as well as behind the milestones in our lives, a telos is concealed, an atonement.
The fact that this phenomenon takes on a humane and daily dimension, does not reverse its impact on a human. Telos, in different instances of life, exists in uniqueness points: namely, in situations where hesitations and inhibitions are nullified and the rules that govern our world fall apart. The allegorical use of the term uniqueness in cosmology shows the sentiment of optimism and success towards the attainment of a goal. The person who manages to fulfill one of their dreams is overwhelmed by power and feels invincible against future obstacles. Thus, it would be prudent to always behave with humility and devote ourselves to our personal battle, armed with knowledge and experience we gained from reaching telos.
The Aristotelian term “entelecheia” (=entelechy) consists of the components “en” (=inside), “telos” (=end) and “eho” (=to have). That basically entails that each being has within itself the purpose, the way to be self-realized and to fulfill its existence. Everyone defines and strives for their self-realization, in a sincere and chaste way, and fights constantly for the approach of their “telos”. In this way they proceed from the area of potential to the area of actuality.
Of course, in Aristotelian theory, telos, the conquest of arete, the Greek word for virtue, was a concept so glorified that it was impossible to be conquered by each human after all. It was simply a theoretical construct, with no possibilities of being completed. Nevertheless, the truth is that, since telos and each one’s purposes are completely subjective and- usually- individually selected, only then are we able to define when we fulfill the purpose; that is when we become self-realized at each one’s level. Achieving goals is not an endless chase, but a course of which we define telos. Moreover, our end in itself is probably not one and only and unchanged from the beginning of our lives, but it alters, grows and multiplies to other similar or not purposes. Telos does not lead to the end of efforts, but it leads to new goal setting, in each one’s attempt to become a little more themselves.
Photography by Theoni Gesiou
