Ethics- What Makes An Action Good? By Weekend Fisher

 

Ethics- What makes an action good- by Weekend Fisher over at  Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength

 

A college-level course could be spent on the topic of "What makes an action good?" What I'd like to do here is give a simplified overview of the main ways that question has been answered, and then make a few follow-up comments.

 

Q: So: What makes an action good?

1. It fulfills or harmonizes with natural law. (Natural Law)

2. It fulfills an essential moral duty. (Deontology)

3. It will achieve a good purpose. (Consequentialism / Utilitarianism)

4. It is the outward expression of inward virtue. (Virtue Ethics)

5. It fulfills a divine command. (Divine Command Theory)

There's nothing preventing an action from being "All of the above". First, a quick survey of some potential problems of each approach:

1. Natural Law is limited in that all kinds of human actions are not necessarily associated with some sort of immutable natural law. Also, emphasis on some natural laws -- notoriously, "survival of the fittest" -- can lead to some brutal results.

2. The "essential moral duty" begs the question of how we know what that essential moral duty is, and why exactly those duties are good.

3. The utilitarians are the ones for whom "the ends justify the means". It is the only theory that bets everything on being justified by a future outcome. There is a blind spot in that we don't know the future, so the true consequences of an action are not actually known in advance. There is no safeguard against causing all kinds of actual harm in the name of good intentions and hoped-for results. Also, there is such a thing as a method that sabotages its intended goal; that risk is typically not recognized.

4. The outward expression of inward virtue begs the question of what exactly is virtue and why exactly is it good. It has nearly the opposite risk compared to the utilitarians, in that for the "virtue ethics" view, the end result is, in practice, nearly irrelevant. In its weaker moments, it tends toward narcissism; it has a self-congratulatory streak.

5. The "divine command" theory presupposes a way of knowing God and a way of knowing his will. Beyond those hurdles, it then bets everything on the character of God. If God is not actually intrinsically good, then "divine command" is not necessarily intrinsically "good" either. (This last point is not at all academic. Not all religions hold that God / the gods are always intrinsically good. According to some religions, God / the gods may not act out of goodwill or virtue.) 

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