Autotelic

A thing which is autotelic^[1] is described as "having a purpose in and not apart from itself".

Origins

The word comes from the Greek αὐτοτελής autotelēs from αὐτός autos, "self" and τέλος telos, "goal".

The Oxford English Dictionary cites its earliest use as 1901 (Baldwin, Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology I 96/1), and also cites a 1932 use by T. S. Eliot (Essays I. ii. 24).

Flow

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes people who are internally driven, and who as such may exhibit a sense of purpose and curiosity, as autotelic.^[2] This is different from being externally driven, in which case things such as comfort, money, power, or fame are the motivating force. Csikszentmihalyi writes:

An autotelic person needs few material possessions and little entertainment, comfort, power, or fame because so much of what he or she does is already rewarding. Because such persons experience flow in work, in family life, when interacting with people, when eating, even when alone with nothing to do, they are less dependent on the external rewards that keep others motivated to go on with a life composed of routines. They are more autonomous and independent because they cannot be as easily manipulated with threats or rewards from the outside. At the same time, they are more involved with everything around them because they are fully immersed in the current of life.^[3]

A. Bartlett Giamatti characterizes sports, such as baseball, as autotelic activities: "that is, their goal is the full exercise of themselves, for their own sake".^[4]

In a sense the action itself is an expression of their happiness, and not a desire to achieve or have happiness.

See also

• Ophelimity, another term for whether a thing has useful contingency (purpose through specific utility) or is an end with purpose unto itself.
• Egregore
• End in itself
• Intrinsic motivation

References

External links

• The dictionary definition of autotelic at Wiktionary