ABSTRACT
The Aristotelian philosophy, which gave to cosmic teleology its classic form, was rooted in a metaphysic of organic nature. From that it transferred the thought to the whole of inorganic nature, to motion itself; and it ultimately included everything in one single teleological cosmic principle, in the pure energy of the "first mover". In general metaphysics, teleology has only the character of fiction and is not to be taken seriously by philosophical science. Here man is lifted metaphysically above all responsibility and accountability; conscience and the sense of guilt are delusions. The total determination of ethical reality is embedded in the universal ontological determination. The phenomenon— one might call it the miracle of ethical existence—is nothing else than the simple consequence of the categorial law as to the indirect relation subsisting between the height and the strength of categorial formations.
