Is it better to do the right thing for the wrong reasons, or the wrong thing for the right reasons?
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If we do the right thing for the wrong reason we are just acting senseless. Just following a predefined code of conduct, or trying to justify a mistake. Something canīt be the right if its for the wrong reason.
If we do the wrong thing for the right reason, then what we have done is not wrong. This only points to a flaw in our system. We just didnīt follow a code. Its impossible to do the wrong thing if the reason is the right one.
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Scenario:
Homeless on the street, rich man gives them a job, cosigns their loans etc. only so he can say to his friends, "Look what I did."
Right thing, wrong reason. Was it better to have done it or not?
I agree that the wrong thing was never right no matter the correctness of reason. I disagree with the assessments made of doing right for incorrectness of reason being necessarily wrong.
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Last edited by Regret on Apr 10th, 2007 at 07:13 PM
Sometimes situations are not as simple as do the right thing or do the wrong thing, and in fact, both scenarios proposed in this thread are pretty optimistic. They both allow for the "right" thing to be done in different ways.
Without going all subjective on right and wrong, whatever maximizes the outcome you are looking for is probably best... If we take a "Randian" look at it, then rational self-interest will always lead to the most desireable outcomes since it is in everyone's best interest to get along. Obviously that is limited in its application, but does work here imho.
It depends on what your definition of right and wrong is in any situation but generally I tend to think that doing the wrong thing for the right reasons is better than the right thing for the wrong reasons.
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In the short term doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is better because the positive event occurs.
In the long term doing the wrong thing for the right reasons can lead to more total "good" in the world because it means that there is a person out there trying to do the right thing.
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So you want to split hairs to the point of the question being:
"Is it better to do what you subjectively consider to be the right thing for the wrong reasons, or do what you subjectively consider to be the the wrong thing for the right reasons?"
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So dropping the Nuclear bomb on Japan was not wrong, because we did it for okay reasons?
Yes, Japan, we did just basically ass rape you, destroy your economy, kill your women, children, and elderly people, radiate your soil for the next hundred years..but we did it with the best intentions
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Apr 10th, 2007 04:41 PM
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