The phrase ‘historic mission’ has teleological origins

Evidence

Might one not trace to a teleological root the expression “historic mission”? In many cases indeed this expression has acquired an equivocal and mystical meaning. But in other cases it does have a meaning, which, in the light of the Kantian conception of teleology, could be maintained and justified by the philosophy of praxis. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1662

Categorization

Category: Connection Points

• XREF: Directly feeds the Islamophobia toolkit: ‘historic mission’ rhetoric undergirds colonial/imperial justifications and could be carried into readings on civilizing-mission discourse.
• DEFINE: Clarifies the Kantian notion of intrinsic finality — cork tree grows for itself, not as bottle stoppers — and how it differs from extrinsic teleology.
• QUESTION: Which specific cases retain a justified teleological meaning for Gramsci, versus the equivocal mystical ones? Worth chasing in the colonial-mission literature.