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Reader question: Please explain the following sentence, particularly “ends justifying means”: Yet, since pragmatism has eroded all values, it’s simply a matter of ends justifying means. My comments: To practical people, who are looking for results and achieving targets and goals, the most important thing for them is to win. As long as they win and get the results they’re after, then how they win and get the results does not matter. That’s it about pragmatism as a philosophy in a nutshell, or that’s about it. Now, ends justifying means. And “end” means a result (as in end result). “Means” (plural) refers to the method you use in order to achieve the end or result. For example, did you travel to Beijing by means of the railway or airplane? To “justify” is to prove that the method is “just” or right. Literally, to say “the end justifies the means” is to say that if the end result is good, then all is good – the method you’ve been using to achieve the result must be good or be accepted as good. Obviously this type of reasoning does not sit well with many people – not all the time. For example, if a soccer team wins a match on the strength of being a better team and giving a better performance on the day, then fair and square, congratulations. If another team wins a match via bribery, by secretly giving the match referee 10,000 dollars the day before to solicit and ensure receiving favors, then it’s hard to say. | 
