The Role Motive Plays in Ethics

I’d like to present a thought on morality, I don’t for a moment claim that it’s original to me, but it did occur to me one night about a week ago, and it’s the role of motive when making moral judgements. I think motivation is the most important ingredient when it comes to judging whether an action is moral or immoral, much more important than even the act its self. Let me provide a quick example. If someone stabs someone with a knife in cold blood out on the street, there are very few people I know who would class that act as anything other than immoral. However, if someone were to break into your house, and you grabbed a knife to protect yourself and your family, and you killed the intruder, perhaps the issue is a little more grey, but I would class that as a moral action, you have defended yourself and your family from someone who themselves was committing a crime in the first place. Notice that in both these situations, the action is exactly the same, namely, person a has stabbed person b with a knife. What’s the difference? The motive. The motive in these cases is everything. This is why adhering to a strict, unalterable moral code will never provide an adequate path to acceptable ethics. Morality must be flexible for it to be worth anything, it must be contingent on the circumstances and the people involved in any given scenario.

I’ve been extremely busy with irl stuff, work mainly, but I will return to morality in due time, I’ll flesh this thought out a little more and talk about some other things over the next week or so. Just thought I’d share this with you as some food for thought.