In El legado de Humberto Maturana y Francisco Varela: Desarrollos, desafíos y aplicaciones de la teoría autopoiética en el siglo XXI. Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Colegas. pp. 47-69. 2026This chapter examines whether teleological vocabulary can retain scientific legitimacy in biology without positing intentional purposes or sui generis properties. From a naturalistic standpoint, I defend a modest conception of teleology as the organisational directionality of complex physical systems far from equilibrium towards states of viability, where such directionality is statistically robust and counterfactually stable. To develop this claim, I connect autopoiesis and the organisational closure of constraints with teleodynamics, organic memory, the thermodynamics of self-replication, and selected orientors of ecosystem development. I argue that these resources allow biological ends to be understood as patterns of organisation, dissipation, and response that channel system dynamics towards continued viability. This naturalisation preserves the explanatory value of teleological language in biology and ecology without introducing any additional finalistic ontology; however, it does not by itself ground a strong form of biological normativity. [Abstract prepared specifically for PhilPapers] ( direct link )