The future of individuals: uncertainty, action, and non-action

The sociological reflection has highlighted that the individuals' action in a cultural and relational context is a key to understanding society. However, to affirm that the attribution of sense of action is arbitrary because it is linked to an actor's project and as such susceptible to modification. Often the action designed and accomplished do not coincide, this involves the distinction between final and causal reasons, or rather, between a sense as purpose (project) and a sense as a cause (accomplished action) determined by the time (Past, Present, and Future). The idea of the future is linked to the concept of uncertainty. Individuals have always tried to find sources of knowledge that would allow them to expand the degree of certainty (security), but this need often is not satisfied. And it is this siege of fear that affects the decisions of individuals and often leads to fall back on not optimum solutions, but possible (easier to control), rather than take the "risk" (less controllable). If social action is the key to understanding society, the attitudes toward the risk does not appear dominated by a purposive rationality. They appear dominated by a logic that is based on the search for balance between "goals" and "means" culture, starting with the selection of "goals" of a cultural hierarchy.