In the fields of technological innovation, economic development, business management, and public policy planning, as well as in everyday life, efficiency is a pivotal criterion that guides the behavior of both individuals and institutions. The widespread utilization of this criterion, however, raises serious epistemological, methodological, and practical questions, along with ethical challenges. Although efficiency may seem to be a clear, morally neutral concept, difficulties arise in conjunction with its extremely abstract character, the vast array of interpretations involved in concrete applications, and the fact that its pursuit may crowd out or obscure other important values.

Origins and Abstractions

The term efficiency is derived from the Latin efficere ("to produce, effect, or make"). In his Physics, Aristotle sees causa efficiens as one of the four factors (along with formal, material, and final causation) that explain change. Traditionally, efficiency has been understood as the agency or power of something or...