 As readers may have noted, this position on freedom resonates with later existentialist thinking, and like it, levelled devastating arguments against any form of metaphysics that imposed any form of determination on humankind. Hartmann’s critique of teleological metaphysics is one example of this (ET1 21b-d). The anthropomorphic roots of cosmic teleology stem from our own purposefulness. Its anthropomorphism is philosophically expressed in the assertion of the primacy of axiological determination in the universe over ontological determination. While the finalistic nexus is a phenomenon of our structure, it cannot be generalized to the structure of the universe, or we would overturn the basic ontological structure of the real world, and this “metaphysical humanization of the Absolute is the moral annulment of man” (ET3 21d). Hartmann claims that if the cosmos were teleologically oriented toward the good, then there would be no place for what makes humankind unique in it. Hartmann considers “deliverance from the nightmare of teleology” to be one of the chief accomplishments of Modern philosophy, because with such a metaphysics genuine morality becomes impossible (ET3 5e). By restricting finalism to its proper place, ethics rehabilitates humankind, recognizing its limited but also weighty cosmic significance.