The means could be self justifying, the initial conditions could justify the means, the environment could justify the means, pure self-interest, etc… Having the ends, and only the ends, justify the means seems like a very unlikely position for the majority of the human population to hold, given the huge array of possibilities.
EDIT: And some may even say there are no justifications at all, the very idea itself fallacious, also for a variety of reasons such as:
Free will doesn’t truly exist, usually expressed technically as humans are like every other thermodynamic process in the universe, determinists, super-determinists, predestination theologians (with suitable religious phrasing), etc., belong to this category.
Justifications are always relative to some reference frame, moral relativists, cultural relativists, etc., belong to this category.
Words themselves lack meaning, lack sufficient rigour, lack some metaphysical quality, etc., to express this kind of relationship of ‘justifying means’, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Popper, et. al, belong to this category.
Most people here are consequentalists, and so would ask, what else could justify the means?
The means could be self justifying, the initial conditions could justify the means, the environment could justify the means, pure self-interest, etc… Having the ends, and only the ends, justify the means seems like a very unlikely position for the majority of the human population to hold, given the huge array of possibilities.
EDIT: And some may even say there are no justifications at all, the very idea itself fallacious, also for a variety of reasons such as:
Free will doesn’t truly exist, usually expressed technically as humans are like every other thermodynamic process in the universe, determinists, super-determinists, predestination theologians (with suitable religious phrasing), etc., belong to this category.
Justifications are always relative to some reference frame, moral relativists, cultural relativists, etc., belong to this category.
Words themselves lack meaning, lack sufficient rigour, lack some metaphysical quality, etc., to express this kind of relationship of ‘justifying means’, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Popper, et. al, belong to this category.
and so on