| The adoption of a similar epistemology would be disruptive for historiographies that are characterized by a strong sense of finalism. |
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| Often associated with vitalism, finalism concurrently fell into disregard with the growing successes of biochemistry and molecular biology. |
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| Therefore, neither mechanism nor strict finalism can give a satisfying account of the phenomenon of change that characterizes life. |
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| Nevertheless, Bergson argues, there is a certain form of finalism that would adequately account for the creation of life while allowing for the diversity resulting from creation. |
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| There is no alternative to this historical finalism, this teleology of universal history, other than that of the apocalyptic destruction not only of mankind but also of the planet and the cosmos! |
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| A state of diffuse and not localized potency seems to be at work here, but such an interpretation in terms of potency is redolent of finalism. |
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| So, on the one hand, within the conception of a world that is animated and inanimate, here it is not about finalism in the organisation of material, but finality in the existence of the cosmos. |
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| Yet in spite of its express mechanistic and deterministic character, Spinoza's physical theory appears to exploit an irreducible element of finalism, and to accord an important explanatory role to individual bodily essences. |
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| In the days when finalism and vitalism were blended into a single, all-encompassing theory, the philosophical position had the merit of being internally consistent. |
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| At the same time, however, their fetishistic overdetermination bears the potential to subvert both presentist solipsism and historical finalism at once. |
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