What is the origin of the ends justify the means?

The statement that the ends justifies the means can be traced back to Niccolo Machiavelli. In this quote from Chapter 18 of The Prince about keeping faith, or being true to your word, Machiavelli is instructing a Prince on how to behave and how to keep up appearances.

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.

What does the end does not justify the means mean?

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.

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.

What does the ends don’t justify the means mean?

Can the ends ever be said to justify the means?

When a person says “the ends justify the means” they are saying that if the end result is noble enough, it will justify whatever measures are taken to achieve that goal. For example, if your goal is to save lives, it’s okay to cheat, steal, and lie to accomplish your goal.

Who said “the ends always justify the means”?

Niccolò Machiavelli said, “the ends justify the means.”. Niccolò Machiavelli never said, “the ends justify the means,” although he did allude to a complex version of the concept in his Prince and other works.

What does the end always justify the means?

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. Consequentialism is a type of normative ethical theory.

Does the end always justify the means?

What the expression usually means is something like “It doesn’t matter how you get what you want as long as you get it.”. The “ends justifying the means” usually involves doing something wrong to achieve a positive end and justifying the wrongdoing by pointing to a good outcome.