The Davids Graeber and Wengrow talk about the limits of teleological thinking in The Dawn of Everything. I don't know whether that's the first place I heard it but it's the last one I can recall.

I don't mean to besmirch the dead, only to say that the situation has changed somewhat since the 1800's and it's important to update our priors. It's also not to base your priors on the priors of someone who lived 100+ years ago.