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Means are the way to achieve goals. They are subordinated to the goals, they are served. The same goal can be achieved by different means.
Mutual influence of goals and means to achieve them
At the same time, ends and means are not completely isolated from each other. It seems that there is a mutual influence between ends and means, in which both the end and the means to achieve it complement each other. On the one hand, the goal predetermines the means used, and on the other hand, the means determine both the Result of the goals and its qualitative characteristics (realism, etc.).
Means are more specific and mobile tools of activity, they directly affect the result, they can correct the goal. It is reasonable not to absolutize any one means, to be ready for a quick change of means, to try to rationally combine the goal and the means.
End justifies the means?
The question of the end and the means — does the end (good) justify the means (bad) of achieving it? — is not clearly defined. Moreover, he seems to have two opposing correct answers, so that his unconditionally good solution for one situation may well turn out to be criminal in another.
How does it work? On the one hand, we can say that joy in this world is not worth grief at all; all the more so — the joy of some is not worth the grief of others, and the joy is still only imaginary — the grief of the real; for this very reason, good ends do not justify cruel means, and crimes even with the best intentions (that is, those that are subjectively felt by the criminal as the best) remain crimes. On the other hand, if one has to weigh not joy and sorrow, but sorrow and sorrow, and with less sorrow one can avoid more, then such an end justifies such a means, even requires it, and only a morally blind, hypocrite does not see this … Here are different answers. That is, the very meaning of the question of ends and means is completely different in different situations.
So, there are situations when it is necessary to choose. Here the end justifies the means.
And there are situations of free choice when there is no coercion to choose. This is where good intentions, «ends,» really do not justify bad means. See Purpose and means — article by A. Kruglov