The ends we seek are the goals we try to achieve, while the means are the actions or things which we use in order to accomplish those ends. A hammer provides the means for pounding a nail in a piece of wood. Some philosophers, most notably Immanuel Kant, have argued that we should never treat human beings merely as means to an end. The domain of actions, motives, traits, etc. The view that we ought not to be morally concerned with, or involved with, people outside of our own immediate group.
Moral isolationism is often a consequences of some versions of moral relativism.
The phenomenon that the moral goodness or badness of some of our actions depends simply on chance. For example, the drunk driver may safely reach home without injuring anyone at all, or might accidentally kill several children that run out into the street while the drunken person is driving home. How bad the action of driving while drunk is in that case depends in part on luck. See Rights, Moral. Contrast with Ethics , which is the second-order, reflective consideration of our moral beliefs and practices.