Does The End Justify The Means?
by Mortimer J. Adler, Ph.D.
Does the end justify the means? Can it sometimes be right to use a bad means to achieve a
good end? Dont the conditions of human life require some shadiness and deceit to achieve
security and success?
First, lets try to understand the sense in which the word “justifies” is used in the familiar
statement that “the end justifies the means.” After that we can consider the problem you
raise about whether it is all right to employ any means – good or bad – so long as the end is
good.
When we say that something is “justified,” we are simply saying that it is right. Thus, for
example, when we say that a college is justified in expelling a student who falls below a
passing mark, we are acknowledging that the college has a right to set certain standards of
performance and to require its students to meet them. Hence, the college is right in
expelling the student who doesnt.
Or, to take another example, if a man refuses to pay a bill for merchandise he did not
receive, we would say that he is justified. He is in the right. But if a signed receipt can be
offered to show that someone in his family received the merchandise without informing
him, the store would be justified in demanding payment.
Now, nothing in the world can justify a means except the end which it is intended to serve.
A means can be right only in relation to an end, and only by serving that end. The first
