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- Title
THE UNANTICIPATED CONSEQUENCES OF PURPOSIVE SOCIAL ACTION.
- Authors
Merton, Robert K.
- Abstract
This paper deals with isolated purposive acts rather than with their integration into a coherent system of action. This limitation is prescribed by expediency, for a treatment of systems of action would introduce further complications. Furthermore, unforeseen consequences are not to be identified with consequences, which are necessarily undesirable. For though these results are unintended, they are not upon their occurrence always deemed axiologically negative. In short, undesired effects are not always undesirable effects. The intended and anticipated outcomes of purposive action, however, are always, in the very nature of the case, relatively desirable to the actor, though they may seem axiologically negative to an outside observer. This is true even in the polar instance where the intended result is the lesser of two evils or in such cases as suicide, ascetic mortification and self torture which, in given situations, are deemed desirable relative to other possible alternatives. Rigorously speaking, the consequences of purposive action are limited to those elements in the resulting situation, which are exclusively the outcome of the action that is those elements, which would not have occurred, had the action not taken place.
- Subjects
SOCIAL action; JUDGMENT sampling; SUICIDE; MORTIFICATION; SELF-torture; ACTION research
- Publication
American Sociological Review, 1936, Vol 1, Issue 6, p894
- ISSN
0003-1224
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2084615