purposewhether

Purposewhether is a neologism describing a framework for evaluating actions, designs, or policies by considering both their intended purpose and the conditions under which the purpose is achieved. It blends purposeful design with conditional reasoning to prompt explicit consideration of efficiency and robustness.

The term is a portmanteau of purpose and whether. It has appeared in discussions within design theory and ethics as a shorthand for asking not only what a project intends to accomplish, but also under what circumstances that aim remains attainable.

In practice, purposewhether is used to analyze decisions by identifying a core purpose, formulating a set of whether-questions (for whom, under what conditions, with what resources), and evaluating options against both goal achievement and resilience to uncertainty.

Example: evaluating a software feature. The feature must help users achieve a goal and must remain useful at different connection speeds or with privacy constraints. Another example: a policy program that should meet its objective even during economic or demographic shifts.

Relation to related concepts includes goal-oriented design, conditional reasoning, and decision analysis. Criticisms focus on potential ambiguity in measuring the “whether” component and on the risk of teleological bias; supporters argue it aids transparent, robust decision-making.