Telos is Greek for purpose or final cause–that for which something occurs.

For those who study nature either from a scientific or religious perspective, Telos has become the elephant in the room. Scientists generally deny it a role in shaping behavior, instead concentrating on understanding behavior as the product of elements, mechanisms and laws, but as a result have a hard time explaining much of what is interesting about living systems. Religious people embrace life’s purpose but have a hard time explaining how purpose emerged and evolves.

Teleodynamics is the scientific study of the dynamics that give rise to purposive behavior. It seeks, and is finding a strictly scientific explanation for the physical origins of behaviors such as ours, so clearly shaped by our purposes.

This research topic was formalized by Terrence Deacon, biological anthropologist (Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology, Harvard University 1984) who taught at Harvard for eight years, relocated to Boston University in 1992, and is currently Professor of Biological Anthropology and Neuroscience at Berkeley.

This site shares the result of ongoing research.

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