issue212 【today is the day】第六次作业 by FreePeter

FreePeterUID: 2402482

TOPIC: ISSUE212 - "If a goal is worthy, then any means taken to attain it is justifiable."

WORDS: 527          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2008-8-7 17:07:03
平衡观点
1.    i. 要达到一个有价值的目标，确实需要付出巨大的努力。Edison。Nobel。
ii. White Lies
2.    但因为一个目标有价值就不择手段的去达到是dangerous and absolutely wrong。在任何领域中，我们都要遵守游戏规则。不能为了减少污染就不允许汽车的使用;不能为了控制某种传染病就杀死所有的患者;商业公司不能为了获取更高的利润而违反法律。
3.    我们应当全面考虑goal和method的利弊得失，以及our own conscience, value system, and notions of fairness and equity. 然后再做出相应的决定，这需要具体情况具体分析，而不是仅仅因为goal是worthy的就可以take any means。Gandhi vs. Washington。

I agree with the speaker's broader assertion that one may need to pay large amount of effort to attain a worthy goal. Yet, does it mean that any means taken to archive a goal is justifiable, only because the goal is considered to be worthy? I do not agree with this, as this will be discussed below.

It is true that sometimes, to archive a valuable goal, large amount of cost is needed. In the well-known case of Edison, to make everyone living a better life, he dedicated himself to the invention. Only to invent to light bulb and bring brightness to the human beings, he had tried for about 1000 times and at last he succeeded. He pays a high price to attain the goal, and their effort is not only thought as worthwhile but also regarded as encouraged. These efforts, although spend lots of energy and time, promote the development of humans.

Also, it is sometimes justifiable to take some unconventional methods to attain the goal. Normally, telling lies is not good and should be avoided, however, consider the example that a patient is diagnosed with a dead disease surely and could live on the world for few days. To console him and let he have the last days in peace, no one would not regard the white lies held by doctors and his family as evil or dishonest. In this case, comparing to the person's happiness in his end days, the conventional dishonesty is no longer so significant.

Although I concede that it is sometimes necessary and even desirable to archive one goal through uncommon methods, it is dangerous and absolutely wrong to take any methods in the reason for a valuable goal. In any realm, we should obey its own rules; we should never violate our conscience. It is a worthy goal for a company to gain more profits, but can it deceive the consumers because this goal? Also, it is a valuable goal to eliminate a epidemic like AIDS, but can the government simply kill all the patients? No one would agree with any methods above, for they violate the basic moral law.

Whether the methods are correct is depend on the specific conditions, but cannot be determined only because the goal is worthy. In different situations, whether the means are justifiable may also differ. As is known all, Gandhi rebels the England's dominion through non-violence, and he stress that it is meaningless to gain freedom through violence. In this case it is truly not good to use violent method, for waging wars against English will bring turmoil to the country while there is another obviously better choice. Yet, George Washington, used violence to free the American from English colonies. Thus can we infer that the means taken by Washington is not justifiable? No one would agree with it for this case occurred in a thoroughly different circumstance: U.S. was not even a independent country at that time, waging war was the only way to repel colonies and build their own country. One can neither hastily concludes that it is justifiable to wage wars in order to gain independence nor that it is incorrect to use force to gain freedom.

In sum, the key is that, we need to consider all aspects of the goal and its means, make sure that these means are consistent to our conscience and value system. We should also analyze the pros and cons in deep, only through this can we judge whether the means is right.