Does the End justify the Means or does it not. This is a question that has been with humanity as far long as humanity has existed.
I used to think that the End does and must justify the Means. Think about if after all, if the end result does a whole lot of good for a lot of people, then what is wrong if a few have to suffer?
This was the reasoning I held for a long time, but then, when I started thinking along the lines of morals, integrity I came across a dilemma. The dilemma is this: Say you use dubious means to achieve a highly honorable goal. Now, since you used dubious means, aren’t you morally unworthy of that goal? What if the means you used are contradictory of the goal that you wish to achieve?
Also, how do you define which is an honorable goal, and more importantly where do you draw the line on the means that you use to achieve the goal?
The above question along with the following quote which I came across
“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster” by Friedrich Nietzsche begs the question of people who claim that the end does justify the means.
Scores and scores of cops, soldiers, and intelligence agents around the world have to make the choice everyday in their line of duty on end vs. means debate.
Now let’s take the other side of the debate that the End does not justify the Means. Of what use would a goal be, if it were not achieved? It would be another failure and would only lead to disillusionment for all those involved with the goal/idea. What use would an idea be, if it were to never see the light of the day and was destroyed by a unscrupulous few?
Of course one may argue that one retains their integrity, morality. That the people involved do not behave in a contradictory manner from their held conventions and thus they are “whole” in the intellectual sense. But this may be labeled, by some, as an excuse for them not being strong enough to stomach what is necessary to be done to achieve their goal/idea. After all many a country’s independence was won through violent means.
So, where does this leave us?
Does the End justify the Means or not? Well, that is a choice that every individual has to make their own choice on this.
I have made my choice and that is that the End does not justify the Means.
I leave you with a quote from the nadirs of my mind:
“A person who truly believes that the End justifies the Means will always claim that the End does not justify the Means.”
