Beginning with the Ends in Mind

All things have a nature to them. And from that nature, their proper ends can be deduced.

It’s time for dinner. Your wife has worked hard and prepared a beautiful meal. The table is set. The food served. All that remains to enjoy that meal is for you to sit in your favorite chair and say Grace. You sit. Crack! The back leg of the chair breaks and you fall backward.

You no longer have a chair.

Someone might argue, “No, you still have a chair! It’s right there.” But we all know that isn’t so. Why? Because the chair is no longer suitable for sitting.

In other words, a chair has a nature—It is a piece of furniture for sitting. So its end is being sat in. And when it can no longer serve that end, it is no longer a chair. It is broken, disordered.

This method of thinking—judging things by their nature and their proper end—is called teleology. From the Greek, telos, meaning “end” or “goal,” teleology is the idea that things are best understood in light of what they are for.

This goes far beyond chairs. All things have a real nature. And from that nature, their proper ends follow.

Only alignment with a proper end brings true fulfillment. And on the other hand, disorder brings frustration and angst, just as no one truly enjoys sitting in a broken chair.

So if you want to understand anything—work, relationships, life, law—begin with the ends in mind.

Libertas et lux.