Can morality be reduced to merely having good intentions?

[McCulloch]

I think that some people who support abortion have good intentions, and are generally concerned about women's rights. These are not the grounds of immorality though.

Even people with good intentions can act immorally. Or is it that all that is required, in your view, to be moral is to have good intentions?

To be moral is to have good intentions. If I slip on a bannana peel and kill a dog, it is not an immoral action because it was not my intent to do so.

Can morality be reduced to merely having good intentions?

[cnorman18]

I'm not arguing that his logic was sound. I'm merely stating that he almost certainly had good intentions while ethnically cleansing Europe.

Okay, but I'll bet you'd agree that General Friedrich Olbricht, Major General Henning von Tresckow, and Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg had better intentions when they hatched a plan to off him.....

[LiamOS]

What makes one's intentions superior to another's?

[Kuan]

Good intentions differ from person to person, so wouldnt this take us back to the OP? What is the difference between morals and intentions?

[cnorman18]

What makes one's intentions superior to another's?

Doesn't that just go back to "What's the difference between good and evil?"

If one can't distinguish a moral difference between the intention to murder millions of innocent men, women and children, and the intention to murder the murderer, I think we have bigger problems than distinguishing between intention and action.

[LiamOS]

Do intentions necessitate logical or moral justification? Even if so, Hitler likely was self-justified in that he believed the was bettering the world, in the same manner that Von Stauffenberg et al. believed they'd be bettering the world by killing Hitler.


You're right in that it does rather necessitate an objective set of morals to define what is a good intention.

[Everso]

Can morality be reduced to merely having good intentions?

Actions need to be considered within the framework of the society as well. Consider the following example.

A man wants to hire a prostitute. His intent is to pay a woman, not hurt her, perform only the agreed acts within the proposed contract. Good intent. The woman's intent was to perform a service and charge a fair fee for said service - again this seems like good intent.

So it could be argued they both had good intent. Indeed assuming the transaction went as planed it could even be argued the deeds were good as well. So according to the definition of good intent = moral action prostitution is moral. When you bring the framework of the society they were in it may or may not be considered moral depending on how that society considers prostitution.


Everso

[McCulloch]

Actions need to be considered within the framework of the society as well.

So then morality is defined by society? If you live in a society where eating pork is considered to be immoral, then eating pork really is immoral?

[Everso]

Actions need to be considered within the framework of the society as well.

So then morality is defined by society? If you live in a society where eating pork is considered to be immoral, then eating pork really is immoral?

Considered within the framework of - not determined by. I feel that the act can not be seen in isolation - certainly in the terms of intent. What about for example children as young as 9 being married to older men. The intent of the man is to marry someone and give them a good life. To us with our different age of consent it seem like his intent was to have sex with a child and "get away with it". It does not take much of a difference ether. My wife moved from the US to the UK. Where she was from (not sure if US A.O.C. is nationwide) it was 18 and over here it is 16. To her someone having sex with a 16 year old girl was child abuse and it took her years to get used to the idea. Now it seems normal to her. Now if we were to move to Holland I believe the A.O.C. is only 14. I feel sure if we moved over there I would find it quite uncomfortable knowing that 14 year olds walking past me were "legal"


And as always - it is rarely black and white.

Everso

[mgb]

I think morality and a moral life are not only a convenience. They are a way to truth because truth and morality are connected. A moral life leads to God. Immorality leads to despair.

[LiamOS]

How does one live a moral life?