Ethics

How should one judge an action: by its intent or by its result?

Comments

An action should be judged -- as either right or wrong -- neither by its intention nor by its result. For example, John burns down Susan's house while she is away. This action is wrong even if it is well-intentioned (John did this to help her out of her supposed financial difficulties through a large insurance pay-out). And the action is wrong even if it turns out to save Susan's life (while Susan spends the next night elsewhere, the ruins of her house are hit by a meteorite that would otherwise have killed her).

We might judge actions in terms other than right and wrong. Focusing on the intention, we might judge whether an action has or lacks moral worth (Kant's phrase). Focusing on the result, we might judge whether an action is, say, valuable. The former judgment is more relevant to assessing the agent than the action. And the latter is remote from a moral judgment because results can depend on many other factors the agent cannot control.

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