The Meaning of Purpose Purpose has a nuanced meaning

Understanding “purpose” is key to exploring questions about life’s meaning or the universe’s purpose. The word can refer to reasons, goals, intentions, designed uses, or desired outcomes. But we need to be careful, because not all uses of the word mean the same thing. There is an important difference between purpose as human intention and purpose as an assumed built-in goal in nature.

What is the meaning of the word purpose?

“Purpose” refers to the reason or intended use of something, or the desired outcome or goal associated with an action, task, or object. It signifies the underlying intention, aim, or objective that guides and gives meaning to a particular endeavour or to the existence of something.

In its strictest sense, purpose belongs to agents who can intend, design, choose, and value. Human beings have purposes. We set goals, pursue aims, make plans, and give meaning to what we do. We also design objects for particular uses. A spade, for example, has a purpose because someone made it for digging.

Definition: purpose

Glossary

Purpose is the reason or intention behind something’s existence or the desired outcome or goal it aims to achieve.

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Purpose is a human construct

Purpose is a construct that arises from human cognition and agency. It is a concept we use to assign meaning, direction, and intention to our actions, endeavours, and the objects we create. Purpose is not necessarily an inherent quality of the universe. It is often a human interpretation and attribution.

As conscious beings, we can set goals, imagine desired outcomes, and pursue specific objectives. Purpose emerges from our capacity to identify these goals and align our actions with them. It is through our thoughts, desires, values, and intentions that we attribute purpose to our activities and to the objects we interact with.

This does not make purpose unreal. Human purpose is very real. But it is real as something enacted, chosen, interpreted, or designed by human beings, rather than something necessarily built into the fabric of the universe.

Teleological purpose

Differentiating between human purpose and teleological purpose is crucial.

Definition: teleology

Glossary

Teleology is the belief that objects/events have an inherent purpose or goal, driven by a final cause. For instance, an acorn’s purpose is to grow into an oak tree.

Tag: teleology (7)

Teleology is a way of explaining things in terms of ends, purposes, or final causes. It assumes, or at least suggests, that things exist for the sake of some specific purpose or goal. For example, to say that “the purpose of eyes is to see” can sound as if eyes were designed with seeing in mind.

In the strict sense of purpose, we can say that “the purpose of a spade is to dig earth,” because a spade was designed by human beings for that use. But it is more problematic to say that “the purpose of eyes is to see.” Eyes were not designed in the same way that a spade was designed. They evolved.

It is therefore more precise to say that eyes have the function of seeing, or that they evolved because seeing conferred a survival advantage on organisms. Eyes do not possess purpose in the same sense that a spade does. They serve a function. We can describe what they do and explain how that function emerged through natural selection, without assuming that nature had a goal in mind.

Purpose and function

A useful distinction is between purpose as intention and purpose as function.

Human purposes involve aims, meanings, intentions, choices, and values. Natural functions, such as the eye’s role in seeing or the heart’s role in circulating blood, do not necessarily imply intention. They can be explained through evolutionary processes without assuming that they were designed for a purpose.

Of course, in everyday language, we often speak as if natural things have purposes. We say that the purpose of wings is flight, the purpose of roots is to absorb water, or the purpose of the heart is to pump blood. This is understandable shorthand. But it can become misleading if we forget that we are often talking about function, not intention.

The danger is that we smuggle human-like intention into places where there may only be process, adaptation, and consequence.

Understanding “purpose” helps us think more clearly about life’s meaning and the universe. Purpose, in the human sense, arises through intention, choice, design, and meaning-making. In nature, what we often call purpose may be better understood as function. When thinking about big questions, it is important to distinguish between human-made purposes and natural functions, and not to assume that the universe itself has intentions simply because human beings do.