Purpose without Consciousness: A Contradiction

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Abstract
The concept of purpose has deteriorated epistemologically to such an extent that psychologists now refuse to use it as a scientific term. The cause of this confusion is the failure of scientists to recognize the logical dependence of the concept of purpose on the concepts of life, goal, and consciousness. Purposes are consciously held goals and are properly inferred only in living organisms possessing some means of awareness (sense organs, etc.). The confusion regarding purpose began with McDougall's failure to distinguish between the concepts of purposive and goal-directed; increased with Tolman's and Hull's attempts to define purpose without reference to consciousness; and reached its apex with the claim by three cyberneticians that purposiveness can exist in the absence of life. The premise of reductionism is held to be responsible for the degradation of the concept of purpose and for the chaotic state of psychological concepts today.

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