 Purposefulness in a way sums up the other conditions in the subject, and also designates a structure of ontological determination unique to humankind, which Hartmann calls the “finalistic nexus.” Our purposefulness is what allows us “to actualize values which without our help would remain unreal” (ET2 11h), and it structures all forms of practical intention, from striving and willing to hoping and taking on attitudes. He defines the finalistic nexus as a three-part structure: 1) affirming or setting up the end in anticipation (which presupposes values and value perception); 2) working backwards from the end to the nearest means leading up to it, and so on, back to the first step; 3) actualizing the end through the series of means in the real temporal and causal order (ET1 20c). In this analysis, finalism is not something opposed to causality, but obviously requires causality, and this “plus” of determination inserts itself into the many-layered causal series. Naturalism misunderstands this because it fails to see purposefulness properly as noncausal (ET1 20e). The significance of this analysis of finalism is decisive for his ethics and philosophical anthropology in general, especially in the discussion of freedom of the will, and is also important because it forms the basis for the critique of teleological metaphysics that Hartmann embraces from the beginning to the end of his career.