Cruel Intentions and Evil Deeds
What it means for an action to have moral worth, and what is required for this to be the case, is the subject of continued controversy. Some argue that an agent performs a morally worthy action if and only if they do it because the action is morally right. Others argue that a morally worthy action i...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Michigan Publishing
2023-03-01
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| Series: | Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy |
| Online Access: | https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/2621/ |
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| author | Eyal Tal Hannah Tierney |
| author_facet | Eyal Tal Hannah Tierney |
| author_sort | Eyal Tal |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | What it means for an action to have moral worth, and what is required for this to be the case, is the subject of continued controversy. Some argue that an agent performs a morally worthy action if and only if they do it because the action is morally right. Others argue that a morally worthy action is that which an agent performs because of features that make the action right. These theorists, though they oppose one another, share something important in common. They focus almost exclusively on the moral worth of right actions. But there is a negatively valenced counterpart that attaches to wrong actions, which we will call moral counterworth. In this paper, we explore the moral counterworth of wrong actions in order to shed new light on the nature of moral worth. Contrary to theorists in both camps, we argue that more than one kind of motivation can affect the moral worth of actions. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2ebdc40ff33a4ec09afcd3e96ba8223d |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2330-4014 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | Michigan Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy |
| spelling | doaj-art-2ebdc40ff33a4ec09afcd3e96ba8223d2025-08-20T02:48:41ZengMichigan PublishingErgo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy2330-40142023-03-019010.3998/ergo.2621Cruel Intentions and Evil DeedsEyal Tal0Hannah Tierney1Brandeis UniversityUniversity of California, DavisWhat it means for an action to have moral worth, and what is required for this to be the case, is the subject of continued controversy. Some argue that an agent performs a morally worthy action if and only if they do it because the action is morally right. Others argue that a morally worthy action is that which an agent performs because of features that make the action right. These theorists, though they oppose one another, share something important in common. They focus almost exclusively on the moral worth of right actions. But there is a negatively valenced counterpart that attaches to wrong actions, which we will call moral counterworth. In this paper, we explore the moral counterworth of wrong actions in order to shed new light on the nature of moral worth. Contrary to theorists in both camps, we argue that more than one kind of motivation can affect the moral worth of actions.https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/2621/ |
| spellingShingle | Eyal Tal Hannah Tierney Cruel Intentions and Evil Deeds Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy |
| title | Cruel Intentions and Evil Deeds |
| title_full | Cruel Intentions and Evil Deeds |
| title_fullStr | Cruel Intentions and Evil Deeds |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cruel Intentions and Evil Deeds |
| title_short | Cruel Intentions and Evil Deeds |
| title_sort | cruel intentions and evil deeds |
| url | https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/2621/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT eyaltal cruelintentionsandevildeeds AT hannahtierney cruelintentionsandevildeeds |