Definition

[1937] Talcott Parsons, The Structure of Social Action
“An end ... is a future state of affairs to which action is oriented by virtue of the fact that it is deemed desirable by the actor(s) but which differs in important respects from the state which they would expect to supervene by merely allowing the predictable trends of the situation to take their course without active intervention.” (Chapter II, p. 75)

[1973] Edward C. Banfield in Andreas Faludi (editor), A Reader in Planning Theory
“An end is an image of a future state of affairs towards which action is oriented. The formulation of the end may be extremely vague and diffuse. If so it may have to be reduced to specific or ‘operational’ terms before it can serve as a criterion of choice in the concrete circumstances.” (p. 141)
“An end may be thought of as having both active and contextual elements. The active elements are those features of the future situation which are actively sought; the contextual are those which, while not actively sought, nevertheless cannot be sacrificed without loss. (The man who burned down his house in order to get the rats out of the cellar ignored a contextual end in his effort to achieve an active one).” (p. 141)

[Home] [Top]

Texts