Philosophy Now Forum

No, not really. I just didn't make it clear that it was the cardinality of the stripes that is not teleological. Having the goal of accurately representing the number of states using stripes there had to be 13 of them, that number being fixed by a pre-existing state of affairs, not a goal or aspiration of how many states there were to be in the future.

I am not usually inconsistent (but we all make mistakes) and I do know what 'teleological' means. I just picked a lousy example to demonstrate it! And with that I end my involvement in this less than riveting thread.

keithprosser2 wrote:No, not really. I just didn't make it clear that it was the cardinality of the stripes that is not teleological. Having the goal of accurately representing the number of states using stripes there had to be 13 of them, that number being fixed by a pre-existing state of affairs, not a goal or aspiration of how many states there were to be in the future.

I am not usually inconsistent (but we all make mistakes) and I do know what 'teleological' means. I just picked a lousy example to demonstrate it! And with that I end my involvement in this less than riveting thread.

Lousy is right.
The existence of the 13 stripes is about meaning and denotation. To bring teleology into it could only relate to the purpose of the flag maker. Thus the purpose it to denote that the US started with 13 states. This is simply heraldry. The Union Jack represents the UK's constituent states. There is really nothing more to be said.