Focus on the goodness of the action and the outcome, not of the person. Saving 100 lives is a good consequence, right? Whatever behavior led to it was a good action.
Trying to kill 100 is a bad thought-action, as the most expected consequence is 100 killings. This would be a bad consequence.
Fantasizing about killing 100 and then not doing it is … neutral. No consequences.
[ note: oversimplified and possibly at odds with some thinking about consequentialism, especially for the common semi-consequentialist-with-deontological-fallback-when-it-gets-confusing philosophy that a lot of people use. I’m probably not in the mainstream when I say “having been lucky is good”].
Thank you! I was mostly just reacting to a question, without really thinking about why or acknowledging that there are distinct reasons to choose a framework to judge an action or person. Which are themselves different from using the framework to choose your own future actions. It’s very useful to be reminded of the complexity.
For purposes of evaluating whether an action is something you should encourage or discourage in the future, you should generally recognize that people are often mistaken about their motivation and reasoning, and heavily weight the actual outcome of those behaviors.
For purposes of punishment or signaling to others about whether a person should be part of your society, you should probably use BOTH outcome and intent.
Focus on the goodness of the action and the outcome, not of the person. Saving 100 lives is a good consequence, right? Whatever behavior led to it was a good action.
Trying to kill 100 is a bad thought-action, as the most expected consequence is 100 killings. This would be a bad consequence.
Fantasizing about killing 100 and then not doing it is … neutral. No consequences.
[ note: oversimplified and possibly at odds with some thinking about consequentialism, especially for the common semi-consequentialist-with-deontological-fallback-when-it-gets-confusing philosophy that a lot of people use. I’m probably not in the mainstream when I say “having been lucky is good”].
For what purpose?
Thank you! I was mostly just reacting to a question, without really thinking about why or acknowledging that there are distinct reasons to choose a framework to judge an action or person. Which are themselves different from using the framework to choose your own future actions. It’s very useful to be reminded of the complexity.
For purposes of evaluating whether an action is something you should encourage or discourage in the future, you should generally recognize that people are often mistaken about their motivation and reasoning, and heavily weight the actual outcome of those behaviors.
For purposes of punishment or signaling to others about whether a person should be part of your society, you should probably use BOTH outcome and intent.