issue212

jeansfaneUID: 2370937

TOPIC: ISSUE212 - "If a goal isworthy, then any means taken to attain it is justifiable."
WORDS: 443          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2008-3-1 16:06:00

The speaker's assertion seems reasonable atfirst glance, but in my point of view as both the 'worthy' and 'justifiable'have no sure definitions we have to divide this issue into several aspects.

Primarily, the various definitions of'worthy' limit the means taken to attain the goal. The definition may bereasonable, valuable, beneficial, gain more than cost and the like. Once wechoose one of them, the way to attain the goal has overlooked otherpossibilities. For example, if the worthy means valuable and the goal is travelto Tibet, one can do manythings such as purchasing a big suitcase, joining some physical training, assoon as these things can help us to go to Tibet. But taking any means withoutweighing the effect and the cost in other aspects, he may be involved in adangerous situation such as lacking of money, fired from work due to too muchabsence. In short, the definition of worthy may result in the setting of significantstandard of behavior.

In addition, the meaning of ‘worthy’ is toocomplex to us to know whether the meaning is justifiable, for one mean may leadto many results while one goal may have various values in different aspects.For instance, there is always a balance between the development of economy andthe protection to the environment. People can hardly say a measure is beneficialto the society because it often has positive effect on the economy while negativeto the environment. If we hastily take a measure in order to reach a goal ofeconomy, it is highly possible that the measure pollutes the nature. Anotherexample is the German novel 'Perfume', the main character in it has anattractive goal, making the best perfume in the world, but he murdered 14girls. It is clearly unjustifiable to reach his worthy goal by this means.

However, it will have some positiveinfluence on people in the psychological level even though the speaker'sassertion is reasonable. Some people are inclined to generalize the meaning ofit or take the goal as a powerful pretence. If most people believe that anymeans taken to attain a worthy goal is justifiable, someone may use it in someimportant field. Is it worthy enough to fire on a nation just considering thereis possibility of some dangerous weapon? Is it reasonable to reach an academicgoal by chasing in the test?

In sum, the speaker's assertion needs to beweight case by case. As the complexity and variety of the definition of the'worthy', most of the human commitment are in order to discover a method ofcontrol some extreme  behavior with thiskind of reason 'I have a goal...'.