A thief arrives at a house but in a ritzy sbdivison just as a kitchen in the fire starts. Hearing the baby cry on the baby intercom, the thief locates the nursery ands aves teh babys life. is the thief worthy of moral praise, blame or neither. and for what reasons?
I first have to say Kants and Aristotles point of view.
And then mine.
Kant would say he is to be blamed because he had bad intentions to begin with, right?
Im a bit confused on Aristotles perspective, any help?
My own perspective is to seperate the two acts. For act one he is to be morally blamed because he was violating someones property but act 2 he is to be praised for saving the baby. I understand he would not have saved the baby with out stealing first, but if were playing it that way than that means we would have to trace back every single action that ever led him to the situation of choosing to steal. Thoughts?
No, we don’t have to trace back every action. We can say that he did a good thing by saving the baby, but still condemn him for the theft.
you are trying to add up goods and bads instead of just recognising that they are what they are.
someone who murders and then walks to the next room and defends an innocent from a murder. is guilty of murder and has done a bad injustice, we know this cause we know what he has done in the first room. ALSO, he is not at all guilty of any crime in the second room, where he did a kindness.
the kindness doesnt mean he didnt do bad earlier . and the having done bad doesnt mean he hasnt ever done a kindness.
Well thats what I ment by saying I was going to seperate the two acts. And condemn him for the first but praise for the second, I just kinda worded it bad I guess.
You want to listen to or read Roderick Long’s work since he is an Aristotelian philosopher. Also pick up Aristotle’s Ethics and Eudaimonia works. Also I believe there is also Geoffrey Plauche who is an Aristotle philosopher. He is sometimes on these forums. I would say your best bet though is to email either of them. What I gather about them is that they love discussing the subject.
Roderick Long Lectures