Does the political end always justify the means?
The ends always justify the means as long as the means don’t prevent you from achieving your end.
Can the ends justify the means?
Definition of the end justifies the means —used to say that a desired result is so good or important that any method, even a morally bad one, may be used to achieve it They believe that the end justifies the means and will do anything to get their candidate elected.
Why doesn’t the end justify the means?
But as young kids, we learned that the “end doesn’t justify the means.” In other words, a positive outcome isn’t, well, a good thing if the methods used were dishonest or harmful to others. On the contrary, cheating or avoiding hard classes might keep your GPA high, but using these means never justifies the end result.
Where did the phrase the end justifies the means come from?
The end justifies the means is a phrase of Sergey Nechayev, the 19th century Russian revolutionary. It means that if a goal is morally important enough, any method of getting it is acceptable.
Where did Machiavelli say the ends justify the means?
Probably the closest Machiavelli gets to expressing this view is in Chapter XVIII of “The Prince”: [M]en judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, because it belongs to everybody to see you, to few to come in touch with you.
When the means justify the ends ethical consideration focuses on what you do not the consequences of what you’ve done?
When the means justify the ends, ethical consideration focuses on what you do, not the consequences of what you’ve done. Traditionally, focusing on means instead of ends leads to an ethics based on duties or rights.
Is the end justifies the means moral?
The phrase “the end justifies the means” is used to suggest that any activity, whether or not that activity could be considered ethically or morally bad, is worth doing so long as a desired end result is achieved. The origins of the phrase go back to consequentialism.