When Does The End Justify The Means?

Dr. Purushothaman
May 14, 2023

The characteristic behaviour of human society believes that the end justifies the means. It is all about the action that people take regardless of how they go on to achieve their desired goals. Like for example, you may put various things in your CV to get a job. The details may not be right but it serves the purpose of getting a job. Therefore, the end justifies the means refers to achieving the end goals in any manner.

The politicians are the best examples of the end justifying the means. The politicians want to win the elections so they will tell you anything which helps them in achieving the end goal. The lies and truths do not matter to them when they speak. All that matters is achieving the desired goals.

The statement end justifies the means can be tracked back to Niccolo Machiavelli where he expressed his view in Chapter XVIII of The Prince. Machiavelli instructs a Prince about behaviour and appearances. He says that is it essential to appear religious, faithful, humane, merciful and upright. But for achieving something one must be ready to behave contrary to his traits.

The people around you will always wish you to behave how you appear. Even if you are different from your appearance, they still expect you to behave in a particular manner. But when you have to achieve the result, you may have to behave differently. However, you must not forget that the road you are taking should be ethical. In the end, the world will know you for who are and what road you took to achieve the results. At some point of time in our life we may feel very low or depressed or stressed and we may feel that we will not achieve our desired dreams and goals. You may get in touch with Living In Wellbeing’s expert counsellors and involve yourself in motivational and inspirational talk with us. Instead of going into the what and why of about the things that we want to achieve, let us have a result-oriented approach focusing on the end result so that all our efforts, energy and mental power are utilised for a better outcome.

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