Where's the Good in Teleology?

Contemporary analyses of teleological explanation generally attempt to "sanitize" it, usually by trying to assimilate it to some uncontroversial descriptive form of explanation. This trend is misguided. Teleological explanations are controversial, especially when applied in biology, because value plays an essential role in them. If a reference to value is largely what makes teleological explanations problematic, then it seems only natural to try to vindicate the use of teleological explanations by eliminating or at least neutralizing this offensive reference to value. This has been the predominant trend in recent writings on teleology, in which teleology is usually given some purely descriptive form of causal analysis. Over against this, my project here is to defend a causal analysis that is value-centered.' It is crucial to distinguish different causal roles that value might play. Once these roles are clarified, it becomes clear what the quite different forms of teleology share and why biological teleology is so controversial.