ABSTRACT
Readers of this book may be familiar with the term ‘teleology’ as a theological or philosophical concept. It denotes the doctrine of final causes, as in the Day of Judgement, which (it is said) won’t happen till the end of human history, but which is nevertheless deemed to explain retrospectively all that has gone before. Teleology is cause after the event, a doctrine of knowledge with which neither science nor TV executives are very comfortable. However, whatever scientists might like to think, television executives are right to feel uncomfortable; for them the final cause is after the event, the day of judgement does determine every action they take. In deference to the poor benighted television executive, then, and taking last things first, I open Tele-ology with a quotation from the Dies irae (‘day of wrath’) of the Requiem Mass:
Judex ergo cum sedebit When therefore the judge takes his seat
Quidquid latet apparebit, Whatever is hidden will reveal itself, Nil inultum remanebit. Nothing will remain unavenged.
