Not A Poll: Does Motivation Affect Morality?

[Edwardo Piet]

Let me re-phrase, since it seems I buggered up the point:  Is a particular action more or less moral because of the motivation of the actor?

The motivations of an action is incredibly morally relevant in the scheme of things. If we isolate the action by itself it's not relevant at all but we don't live in a world of isolated actions, so the more important reality of the matter is that the motivations of an action are morally relevant because good people tend to do good things and bad people tend to do bad things. It's why pure act consequentalism while being technically more accurate overall, I think, is not a useful moral guide.

Consider this: Following and believing a non-consequentialist approach to philosophy may be paradoxically the better and more effective moral guide leading to more ethical actions on consequentalist grounds, even if consequentalism is true and non-consequentalism is false.

In short, behaving as if it's not ultimately consequences that matter, might lead to better consequences. Maybe it really is the case that the ends justify the means but the best way to reach those ends ethically is paradoxically to not believe that (or at least not to behave as if) the ends justify the means.

-Hammy