dijous, 9 de març del 2017

Fins i mitjans







El 18.02.2017 Edgar Morin feia una piulada recordant que Aldous Huxley havia dit quelcom de fonamental i massa sovint oblidat: que el fi no pot justificar els mitjans per la raó evident que els mitjans determinen la naturalesa dels fins produïts per ells.


Heus ací dos fragments del llibre de 1937 Ends and Means (an Enquiry Into the Nature of Ideals and Into the Methods Employed for Their Realization) d'Aldous Huxley:


“Good ends, as I have frequently to point out, can be achieved only by the employment of appropriate means. The end cannot justify the means, for the simple and obvious reason that the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced.”


“And yet our personal experience and the study of history make it abundantly clear that the means whereby we try to achieve something are at least as important as the end we wish to attain. Indeed they are even more important. For the means employed inevitably determine the nature of the result achieved; whereas, however good the end aimed at may be, its goodness is powerless to counteract the effects of the bad means we use to reach it.”