Q&A: Acting for Values — Is the Importance in the Effort or in the Achievement?
Acting for Values — Is the Importance in the Effort or in the Achievement?
Question
Hello,
I’ve read in a number of places (if I remember correctly, Leibowitz refers to this a lot) that standing by a certain value is measured by the effort and not by achieving the goal. On the one hand, that sounds logical to me, but on the other hand it doesn’t seem reasonable. For example, when a person is debating whether to uphold one of two values (say, helping his grandmother or contributing to the community), because his time/resources are limited, it seems more reasonable to choose the value that has a better chance of succeeding (of course there are other considerations, but the dilemma is when all the other considerations are equal on both sides).
I’d be glad to hear your opinion on the matter.
Answer
Striving for the moral achievement is what defines the morally correct action. But evaluating the person who performs a moral action is based on the effort and the intention. See the last column (128), where I discussed the importance of these two components in moral evaluation.