Does The End Always Justify The Means?
Consequentialism refers to those moral theories which hold that the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgment about that action. Thus, on a consequentialist account, a morally right action is an action that produces good consequences. In other words, the ends justify the means. Basically, the idea that any evil is OK if there is a good outcome. Anything is acceptable if it leads to a successful result. A supporter of this philosphy is Niccolo Machiavelli, a Florentine statesman, who wrote The Prince in the early sixteenth century. He believed a ruler had the right to stay in power, including trickery and dishonesty. 
What does “The end justifies the means” mean to you?
Do you think what one is able to accomplish in the end, makes all of their actions along the way acceptable? Cite examples in history or in current events to support your argument.
In your life, when does “the end justifies the mean” apply to you, if ever. If not, why not?
March 7th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
“The end justifies the means” means that if you want something so badly that you would do anything that you can to get it. Different people think in different ways. Some people might say that it’s alright to do anything in your power to get what you want, to even use violence. But other people might say that you have to be peaceful and obey the law. Instead of using violence, you can make protests and other peaceful ways of getting your way.
I think that if you break some laws or rules to stop a certain thing or to start a certain thing, it doesn’t make anything that you did to get that far right. One current issue is baseball. Some baseball players would use performance enhancing drugs like steroids and human growth hormones. One baseball star that used performance enhancing drugs is Barry Bonds. Barry Bonds used steroids to help him hit more home runs. He broke all those rules thinking that he wasn’t going to get caught. But in the end when he did get caught, it didn’t help him that he started to lie. This broke even more rules.
The only way I would apply this to my life is in a total emergency. One example is if my family and I were about to go through a natural disaster like a hurricane. I would steal the things that my family needed in order to make it through. Another example is if my family members were going to die. I would go to the hospital and steal the cure. But only after going to the hospital and being denied the access I needed to get the cure.
March 7th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
“The ends justifies the means” means that if you believe in something so badly, you can do anything, including violence, to get your way. Some people say it is not okay that people are using violence just to get their way. It isn’t the right way to get something because people will follow you more if you use peace. If you use violence, people will only hate you more since you probably killed someone they knew. Do you really think that others will go your way and look through your perspective if you use violence and burn people’s houses or kill their relatives?
I don’t think that you can get your way through violence. Malcom X killed other white people thinking that he could win their choice to free the Blacks through violence. It didn’t work. Yet when Martin Luther King used peace, he won the freedom for the Blacks. And also Imaculee forgave the Hutus when they slaughtered so many Tutsis. She used peace when other people thought that they should fight back. But if they used violence even more, the fire will keep going on and on and will never stop. Doesn’t everyone want the fire in the world to stop? Who would want the world to be in a riot for the rest of eternity?
In life, I would use “The end will justify the mean” in a total emergency. Some people will think that if a family member will die in a few minutes, they think that it is okay to rob a bank to get money for the only medicine that will help the person to survive. I understand why people think this is okay. Everyone loves their family. I, myself have lost a lot of members in my life, so I know why they want their family to survive. But, in my case, everyone has their time to live, and a time to die. I would rather stay in the room with them for the last moments before they die, rather than rob money from the bank. If they do survive because of the medicine, do you think that they would want to see you in jail when they healed? You did rob a bank to get the money, and that deserves a fair punishment.
March 7th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
I think that the ends justify the means is saying that it doesn’t matter how you do something, it only depends on how it ends. For example, if you wanted to stop global warming then you could either start recycling or you could start burning people’s homes that cause global warming. Whenever you make a choice, always remember that there is another way of doing things. Before you do something, think and say to yourself, ”Is this the best way to do whatever you are doing, or can I do something better?”
Before I do something, I try to think about the consequences of my actions. I would try to find a peaceful way of getting to my goal. If that is impossible then I would use violence to reach my goal. Another thing is that if some kind of genocide started and all of a sudden my whole family was dead, then I would want vengeance through violence.
March 7th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
I think that the end justifies the means in some situations, but on the other hand, not in all situations. There are different ways to get what you want. What I am trying to say is that you can get your way but you may not get it in a peaceful way. There is always an alternate solution to get something, so I would personally go with the less violent way. But, if someone gets me very mad or motivated, I might go the hard way!!!!!!
March 7th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
To me “The ends justifies the means” means that if you have a good cause, it is all right to do anything to get a good result although it may be bad way. I think if one has a good outcome but does bad actions to get there, it is the wrong way to do it. We can get the same outcome but without bad actions. For example, when people see people who aren’t environmentally friendly they might do a bad action like burn down a house. Instead of doing that, they could start recycling programs or influence people to go green.
This applies to my life because there are two choices in life, to do it unacceptably or acceptably. Some choices can lead to the same outcome, but there may be good or bad actions in between.
March 8th, 2008 at 8:41 am
The saying “The ends justify the means,” means that whatever you do is okay to do as long as you get your way in the end. How you get there doesn’t even matter even if it means killing people throughout your journey to get somewhere you want to be.
I think that even if someone gets something very good out of what they did, if it was bad there should be no excuse that helps make it better. For example, Adolph Hitler did horrible things like make those concentration camps for the Jews, then started a war which killed millions of people to give Germany their hope back after World War I. I think that there be no excuse for all of those people who died in the war just to get Germany its confidence and power.
I think that the ends justifies the means sometimes applies to me because I will do lots of things to get my way in the right way, but mostly I will end up getting it the wrong way. When it happens I don’t remember that I did the same thing before in another time.
March 8th, 2008 at 10:24 am
To me, the ends justify the means is saying that no matter how you do something, it is okay as long as you get what you want. I don’t like this quote because it could mean to kill someone to inherit a fortune. In history, this quote happened a lot. For example, the American Revolution. I don’t think that we had to go to war to be independent. A lot of innocent people were killed.
This quote doesn’t apply to me because I always do good things to get what I want or need. I would only use this quote in an emergency when I can’t do anything better. For example, if a family member is about to die and you need to buy an expensive medicine, I would probably rob a bank to do it. In this situation, the ends justify the means. But if I rob a bank to buy a car, the ends don’t justify the means.
March 8th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
To me the phrase “The Ends Justifies The Means,” means that when there is a problem that is going on around you, there are always going to be more then one way to figure it out. “The Ends Justifies the Means” is a very good saying for people who have really strong feelings about an issue worldwide. This phrase means that somebody would do something so out of the ordinary to stop an issue like global warming or trying to keep somebody in your family or someone really close to you alive. Some people depending on the problem will go to the point of dying for the issue, but the question is, how far is your breaking point?
I think that the way the person fixes a problem matters because if somebody stole something from the bank or a store to pay for something to keep someone alive, then the solution may seem good when you are solving it, but in the long run you are going to notice that you did something wrong and feel guilty for it now or later.
If I were in a situation in which someone else had to pay their bill in 24 hours or else they would get their house taken away, I would steal money from somebody not just for my sake but for anybody else who was living with me at that time. I would feel really guilty after awhile because I stole something and the person or people that I stole it from would never be able to get that one special thing because I stole from them.
March 9th, 2008 at 9:01 am
I think that “the ends justifies the means” means that you can do whatever you have to do including killing people and breaking the law to get what you want in the end. In some situations the ends do not justify the means because there are many different ways to go. They are the violent way and the right way. I would usually take the right way. If the situation were dire, I might do whatever I can to get what I needed.
I think that in the situations of the global terrorists their actions do make a difference. The global terrorists burn down people’s houses because their house is not eco-friendly. I think that if the global terrorists got their way in the end that the ends would not justifies the means because they could have done it in a right way instead of burning houses.
March 9th, 2008 at 9:27 am
I think that the phrase “The Ends Justify The Means” means that if you make a choice to do something good or bad you should know you should do the right thing. If you know that something is wrong you shouldn’t do it in violence, you should do it in a peaceful way. If you don’t do it in a peaceful way and end up trying to kill someone to get what you want, then for me, I think it wouldn’t be the right way to go. For example, when Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were fighting about stopping segregation in a peaceful way or with violence. MLK wanted to do it in a peaceful way and that is exactly what he did. He fought for peace in a peaceful way no matter what the White man did to them.
Some of the ways that people fix things matters because if someone broke into your house or anyplace that has a lot of money to try and pay for their mother’s medicine and needed 200,546,357 dollars to get the antidote, then I think it would be okay. I think this because if that person were me and I had to pay for my mother’s antidote for her to be alive, then I would rob a bank or store. But I know that in the long run you will feel that you did something wrong, but you still saved a life. It is very hard to pick which way you are going to handle this situation because if you have to save a person who you love, to get the money you have to rob somebody. Because I know that it is wrong, it would be hard for me to choose what I would do. I think that you shouldn’t settle things with violence because sometimes you end up killing or making matters worse.
If I saw a situation where someone had to pay for their family to live in two days and they chose to rob a bank, then I would think that what they were doing was wrong and that is not the way to go. But, If I were in that situation I would rob a bank because I would want to save my family.
March 9th, 2008 at 9:50 am
I think “the ends justify the means” means if you want to change the world around you, it does not matter how you would change the world. You could change the world in a bad way, like if you want peace for your people, you use violence to get your peace. Other people like Martin Luther King Jr. used protests, boycotts, and marches to get their equal rights.
If Hitler did not care about killing the Jews all over the world, maybe there would be inventions that would make the world better because so many Jews would have lived. Also, if there was no war, the Jews would have never moved back to the Holy Land because they could have stayed where ever they were.
In my life I never applied “the ends justify the means” because I never knew there was such a quote that had meaning like that.
March 9th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
I think that in the end when one has accomplished his/her goal it depends what strategy they used. I feel that if they used non-violence and used speeches and marches, their actions are acceptable. For example. Martin Luther King Jr. used the strategy of non-violence and reached his goal. Instead of going through war and fighting, he decided that speeches and marches were the right thing to do. He didn’t use any violence and he still reached his goal. On the other hand, Malcolm X had the same goal as Martin Luther King Jr., but he decided to use the strategy of violence. When he did this, he thought that by killing White people, it would free the Blacks. This proofs that any strategy is right and that violence and non-violence can accomplish your goal. We all need to think before we make this decision because sometimes it can lead to death.
The “Ends Justifies the Means” applies to my life when I get really mad! When I get really mad, I feel like using violence. Sometimes when people make me irritated, I feel like using violence. In this situation, I need to calm myself down and use my words to talk to that person. This would be much better than if I went and used physical violence. I need to work on being benevolent and claming my temper down.
To me, “Ends Justifies the Means” means that there is always another way to deal with things. You can use non-violence or physical violence. I think that non-violence is the right strategy to use.
March 9th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
I say that quote means if you want something so bad you will do anything for it. Malcolm X used violence because he wanted to stop segregation. Martin Luther King Jr. took it as far as giving a speech to thousands of people. He did not care what the Whites did to him; he just cared about what he thought was right.
I think if you can accomplish something great in the end, it is okay to break some laws. For example, if you had to do something that would break the law to stop people from using steroids, Human Growth Hormones and other stuff, I think it is okay to break the law.
I think this quote would apply in an emergency, like someone in my family would die in 3 hours unless I get the money for a medicine. I would steal money from someone because I want to save my family member. For example, in the movie Catch That Kid, the girl’s father was not doing so well and they needed money for medicine, so the girl and her 2 friends stole a lot of money from this place to save her dad.
March 11th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
The end justifies the means. It means that if you get what you want in the end, it doesn’t not matter how you got it. I think that is wrong. If you cheat on a test and get a good grade, it will live inside of you until you confess. But if you confess, you will get into a whole lot of trouble. The best thing to do is the right thing to do. In the end, I do not agree with Machiavelli.
If a family member or someone you know is going to die without this certain medicine that costs $1,000, that doesn’t mean that you can just rob the bank for the money, you either do it legally or not at all. If that person dies, it isn’t your fault. It was God’s own good will for that to happen. It was just the nature of life. Everyone has their time. If I were dying, I wouldn’t want my family to rob the bank. I would want them to let me die.
March 11th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
In my opinion, I think that “The end justifies the means” means that you will do whatever in your power to get what you want. For example, people will cheat, lie, do whatever they can to get what they want. Some people like to solve their problems by violence. Some people like to solve their problems by peace. For example, Malcolm X solved his problems by violence, but Martin Luther King Jr. solved his problems by peace. Solving your problem by peace seems like a harder way to go in the beginning but in the end it pays off. It seems like a pain in the butt in the beginning because it takes patience. In the end it pays off because you will be using peace so not many people will die compared to Malcolm X. If you solved your problem like Malcolm X wanted to do, lots more lives would be lost.
I think that the way the person fixes a problem matters. For example, if you steal something from some store you can pay for it but, if your kill someone it’s different because you can’t bring someone back to life. What’s done is done.
I would only rob a bank or steal something if it was an emergency. For example, if I had to pay for my family, I would rob a bank or steal something to make money off of. Other than that the quote does not apply to me.
March 14th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I think that “The end justifies the means” means that you will do whatever you need to do to get what you want. For example, people will use violence and maybe even hurt a family just to get what they want. Some people use violence because someone did something to them and they hurt someone else. Those people that he hurt didn’t do anything to hurt them but they take the beat for whatever person that actually did it. People have problems and they blame it on other people even though they don’t even know that person. Another example is Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X tried to solve his problems by using violence. Although he was doing it for a good reason and the people did hurt him he still shouldn’t use violence. Martin Luther King Jr. settled his problems with protesting marches and speeches. When he didn’t use violence he got his command without any bloodshed.
To be continued.