Telic and atelic activities

publish #needswork - just add the date Part of Musings on philosophy; seems highly related to The Sinusoid; first heard about this in Philosophy and the Good Life with Sam Harris.

What do these words mean?

I think the terms come from Aristotle (“telos” refers to “fulfillment”, “end”, “terminus”)

So “telic” activities are those with a destination in sight. If I’m writing an article, my goal is to finish it.

Whereas “atelic” activities are those without destination. The process of writing my daily journal doesn’t have an end date and I won’t run out of things to write. So it’s more of a process.

But it gets confusing. I enjoy drawing yet also seek to improve. Is it telic because I focus on getting better? Or atelic because I’m self-compelled to do it?

My (light) take

These terms remind me of my Type 2 fun-seeking philosophy, but I’m not sure how exactly; that you should do something for a telic goal, then embrace the atelic consequences perhaps?

It also reminds me of the hobby compensation study. Where kids who have a hobby are paid for it, turning an atelic activity to a telic one, ruining their interest in it. Seems like telic-ification is bad, so what about the reverse? Running was once a telic goal for me that became atelic over time. That’s interesting; it suggests making something telic is poisonous whereas making something atelic is nice.

• Idk if I truly believe this line of reasoning; should revisit it.
• Also, after I finished the SF marathon in 2019, I immediately stopped running and haven’t run a race since (I write this in 2023) so perhaps telic-ification of my atelic-once-telic hobby went too far, and there’s a middle ground you should do without becoming obsessed.
  • But I know someone who ran a marathon and then an iron man, so maybe you can’t know what your middle ground is until you get burnt. That’s disheartening if true, that all hobbyist pursuits must end in burnout unless we’re lucky.