The Ends and Means of Development.

The entire process of development involves meeting ends through some means, the extent to which our ends are met depends on the means with which we address our ends. Human beings should not be seen as means to an end but as ends in themselves. This philosophy ensures that we do not override human beings in our quest for development. The real wealth of a nation is its people. And the purpose of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives. This simple but powerful truth is too often forgotten in the pursuit of material and financial wealth. In the area of development, human beings are both ends and means of development. This perception is embodied in various works with philosophical dimensions like, capability approach and human development approach, with philosophers like Kant setting the pace and Sen and Nussbaum picking up from there.

The ends of development involves enriching human lives which is measured with certain index like increased life expectancy, high literacy rate, low infant mortality etc. To illustrate the resultant effect of the means of development being confused or taken as an end, we find that in some countries where increased production and increased economic activities is recorded with high Gross National Product (GNP) per capita certain human indices like, life expectancy at birth is low e.g. according to the world development report of 1987, South Africa had a high GNP per capita of about 2,010 but a life expectancy ratio of about 55. While Brazil with a GNP of about 1,640 had its life expectancy ratio at birth put at 65 higher than that of  South Africa, while Sri Lanka had its GNP put at about 380  but a high life expectancy of 70. What this entails is that economic growth and development does not necessarily reflect the conditions on ground as regards certain vital aspects of human lives. 

In talking about the ends and means of development our aims and priority is to put principles first ahead of actions. This implies that a country can be rich in economic terms but very poor with regard to the quality of life. The ends and means of development analyses the quality of development. “In making sure that development planning and general policy making do not suffer from costly confusions of ends and means, we have to face the issue of identification of ends in terms of which the effectiveness of the means can be systematically assessed” Sen (1989:42).  In order to avoid this common mistake of confusing the ends and means of development, building on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant becomes tenable, in this philosophy he argues for the necessity of seeing human beings as ends in themselves rather than as means to other ends: “So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as means only.” Sen (1989:41).

The philosopher and economist AmartyaSen propounded the capability approach as an approach to development analysis that will counter these inadequacies. The roots of this approach can be traced down to the works of Aristotle, Adam Smith and Karl Marx. The approach is a method for evaluating the quality of life. It relates the evaluation of the quality of life to the capability to function. “In investigating the problem of political distribution, Aristotle made extensive use of his analysis of the good of human beings and this he linked with the examination of the functions of man and his exploration of life” Sen(1989:43). Sen traced the work of Aristotle who linked the quality of life with the functions of man in evaluating his concept of the good life or the quality of life. Hence the value of human life is measured or viewed in terms of valued activities and the capability to achieve these activities. The capability of a person reflects the various combinations or functioning’s he or she can achieve. The capability approach does not just look at the kind of life lived but the quality of life.

Karl Marx and Adam Smith also evaluated the quality of wellbeing on the capability to function. Seeing that the quality of human lives is based on the set of doings and beings that are valuable, therefore the impact of the ends of development can be measured by evaluating these functioning’s and the capability to function. “A functioning is an achievement of a person what he or she manages to do or to be, and any such functioning reflects as it were a part of the state of that person”. Sen (1989:44). In the words of Aristotle ‘…..wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else” Sen (1989:44). The capability perspective sees the human being as an active individual and not a passive individual in the development process as functioning’s entails the activities of the human being like the ability to escape mortality, morbidity, hunger, to be nourished adequately, to get an education, to provide for his essential needs, to live long and healthy lives. Since wealth is only the means to the end we seek, it cannot therefore be used to measure the quality of life.