Does the End Justify the Means? Will Our Politics Be Ever Free of This Maxim?
Every day, we see many examples of action and thought justifying the maxim that the end justifies the means. This notion has haunted our ethical positions for centuries, more the reason for revisiting the concept and repeatedly proving it wrong. If the end justifies the means, many acts of violence, cheating, and manipulation will acquire acceptance. We are familiar with this idea. The allusion is that harm can be done if it leads to a benefit that weighs more than the harm done. In other words, a noble outcome will justify even an unethical path to reach it. For example, a few people might be justifiably harmed to save a hundred or thousand or to build a better society; a river might be polluted if it helps generate employment through a polluting industry on its shore; a leader can be assassinated if it leads to a better man replacing him to rule the country; thousands of civilians and soldiers of another country could be killed in a war if it leads to economic and securit...
