(DJN I.4.4, II.3.4) Thus, since moral norms are not directly linked to the intrinsic natures or purposes of things, or to the outcomes of actions, he was neither a teleologist nor a consequentialist in ethics (in the sense of maintaining an obligation to achieve or realize natural 'goods' or 'the good', which are assumed already to be morally compelling).
The wise Cicero observes, "Men may construe things after their fashion, / Clean from the purpose of the things themselves" (Act I, scene 3, lines 34 35).
In 1962, Kenneth Arrow, the guru of mainstream economics, said that in a free market economy the purpose of inventing things is to create intellectual property rights.
Universals, according to the Buddhists are arbitrarily constructed "exclusions" (apoha); words serve the purpose of separating things off from other objects.
~ "Walden" is now a computer game, which would seem to defeat the purpose of all things. .
Adding more labels -- like "cisgendered male transvestite" -- in order to justify your act of aggression defeats the purpose of simplifying things with words like "cisgendered".
Looking at history, I suppose this isn't anything new, but in this age of access and information, maybe it's time the courts tried a little harder to fulfill their original purpose of setting things right.
That the obsession with money is endangering the quality of our culture makes me feel somewhat vindicated in my own view, as an educator, that the purpose of learning things is not to become materially successful at all costs but to know how to live life fully.
Spiritual enlightenment means to obtain a spiritual revelation or deep insight into the meaning and purpose of all things, to communicate with or understand the mind of God, or to achieve a fundamentally changed level of existence whereby one's self is experienced as a non-changing field of pure consciousness.
