Goal

In CF, a goal is the purpose an idea is supposed to serve, and it is the reference point that makes every evaluation precise. An error is defined as a reason an idea fails at a goal, so there is no goal-free verdict on an idea’s quality: “use a hammer” succeeds for nailing wood and fails for serving soup. Because of this, CF says ideas should never be judged in isolation. You evaluate (idea, goal) pairs, or fuller (idea, goal, context) triples called IGCs, each as refuted or non-refuted.

This connects goals to problem solving and to criticism: a decisive criticism shows an idea will fail at a particular goal, while a flaw compatible with success at that goal is not really an error. To say one rival idea beats another, you must name a relevant goal one passes and the other fails.

CF insists on binary goals: well-defined goals make success and failure unambiguous, with no partial success. CF rejects “degrees of success,” arguing such talk usually hides a vague maximization goal. Good goals aim for enough, not the most, which creates a good-enough breakpoint dividing pass from fail.

Because infinitely many goals are logically possible, CF limits attention to important goals, those tied to breakpoints. An overall goal decomposes into sub-goals (the factors in a decision), combined by multiplication into one pass/fail result.