Ethical Question: Intention vs. Results
Yesterday I found myself too eager to help someone in a way that went beyond the call of duty. Why was I so eager to help her advertise her business? I had already offered to post fliers in a few places and had done so. I hardly know her and she hadn't asked for my help.
I realized, then, that I wanted to help for myself. I wanted to be the one who helped her find the right person to rent her space, since I have connections in the world she's advertising to. It was an ego trip.
Which brings to mind the question: Is it better to do something good with impure intentions, or not do something good because you would do it for the wrong reasons?
Discuss.
posted by kStyle @ 9:44 AM
3 Comments:
This is a timely question in light of who Deep Throat turned out to be. Whether Mark Felt's intentions were pure or not is less important a question that whether what he did was good. And it was. I think good acts usually have myriad causes, some ego-driven (we all like the satisfaction of doing a good deed), some magnanimous. Life's complicated that way.
(p.s. This is a much lesser answer than I would have hoped to provide. The combination of very little sleep and a Benadryl this morning has left me a little, ummm, brain-dead.)
Ann's is the much better answer I would have liked to have written, if not for this pesky brain-dead thing.
I agree with everything y'all have said. (Does that make this a dull blog? Maybe I should call someone names to make it interesting. Eric, you're a troll.)
Anyway, I would add--also with a nod toward Buddhism--that it's important to understand what your own intentions or motivations are. Not being clear with oneself creates subconscious desires that can lead to disappointment, anger...suffering. Moreover, if one is not clear with oneself one cannot be true in her actions and can create external suffering as well, as in Ann's example of gift not given freely.
Jamiroquai summed it up in their catchy dance song "Stillness in Time":
I have done wrong if I don't know where I'm comin' from/ If I don't see the things that are inside of me"
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