International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

"Some end state to which a system tends by virtue of its structural organization" (A. RAPOPORT, 1966, p.8).

A goal is generally understood as the purpose toward which an endeavor is directed, or an objective. R.L. ACKOFF for example states: "The goal of a purposeful system in a particular situation is a preferred outcome that can be obtained within a specified time period" (1972).

It has also the connotation of "blank" or "target".

This makes the concept ambiguous from the systemic viewpoint, because it is thus more or less implicitely surmised that the entity or system is conscious and volitive, which may very well introduce excessively anthropomorphic biases in any research about non-human as well as human systems (individual or social).

Even a keyed-down formulation as for example speaking about the final situation toward which the system tends, does not solve the difficulty, because "tends" seems still to imply voluntary activity. A good example could be what FREUD called "death wish". Every living system is somehow "death directed ". This final and unavoidable state seems even to be inscribed in it since its beginnings, by way of the 2d principle of thermodynamics, which impedes the very long term maintenance of heterogeneous organization.

However, living systems seem to pursue goals precisely in the opposite sense: their functional workings lead (aim?) to the maintenance of their organization. So, what?

Until now, nobody seems to have found any satisfactory term to replace "goal ", that would solve these semantic difficulties. Let us thus remember to be very careful when using the word.

For the time being, RAPOPORT's definition is still the most honest, semantically speaking.