ELI5- What’s the meaning of “The end justifies the means”?

Question

ELI5- What’s the meaning of “The end justifies the means”?

In: Other

Answer 1

It means the supposed moral good of an outcome justifies doing something morally bad. Like you might say of torturing someone to prevent a terrorist attack “the end justifies the means”. Of course its usually morally ambiguous whether the ends really do justify the means, as a tyrant may claim mass torture of criminal suspects is justified to prevent crime for example.