<<<For example, can mere thoughts be unethical? Immoral? I
would toss out as a theory for examination that a mere
thought cannot be unethical, but can be immoral; that
ethicality has do to exclusively with behaviors, but morality
can have to do with unacted on beliefs or thoughts. >>>
If you imagine a person thinking about doing immoral things-- i'll choose examples we would all agree on-- tormenting animals, or molesting children-- , and you imagine that they solicit those thoughts, and subscribe to publications dwelling on this sort of imagery, and hang out with others who share such mental preoccupations, it feels like the thoughts are immoral. But actually I think the immoral part is the making-real of the thoughts, in the sense that buying a magazine is a real engagement, a sanction, talking to others is a sort of sanction....
But really, I think that thinking about immoral things in itself shouldn't be called immoral. I think it was X who pointed out that a person who hasn't had to resist immoral promptings from his or her, shall we call it, 'id,' lol, can hardly deserve a lot of credit for not performing those immoral acts.
What i'm saying is the the statement "I am having immoral thoughts," could be confused for the statement, "I am thinking about immoral things." But it's not the same, of course. |
