Topics Ethics

Question For clarity, I will ask the "same" question several different ways: Is it wrong to have bad thoughts? Does having and enjoying evil thoughts make one evil? Is having bad thoughts wrong, even if no action is intended? Is it wrong to wish harm to another person? Mainly, if merely having bad thoughts is wrong, why EXACTLY is it wrong? A version of this question has been asked here before, but I feel the answer did not address the essence or why having bad thoughts is wrong. (What I'd really like to know is what philosophical principle addresses this question, so that I can look into it much further than this small space can provide.)

Accepted:
June 24, 2008

Comments

It might be argued that it is wrong to contemplate favourably doing evil things, even if one does not actually do them. Perhaps that is what Jesus had in mind when he condemned adulterous thoughts, and equated them with adulterous actions. There is of course a connection between thinking and acting in general, even if it does not occur in a specific instance, and it is not improbable that the more one thinks about doing wrong things, the more likely one is eventually to do them, or at least to view their performance with equanimity. But I think you are right, someone could argue plausibly that he enjoyed having particular thoughts of actions which he would never actually carry out, and would be ashamed to carry out, and there is nothing obviously wrong with that. I remember working with a man who in private expressed feelings of great hostility to certain ethnic groups, but when in his professional life he had to deal with them he was the model of fairness and politeness. In such cases these negative feelings might be regarded as a personal eccentricity with no significant moral character.

On the other hand, thoughts are parts of our character, and we can be blamed, or praised, for the sort of person we are and the sorts of views we evince even if this is the only activity that results from those thoughts. There is a notion of the unity of character that we ought to adopt, as far as possible, where our actions, thoughts and emotions are brought together under some common principles, and this reflects the idea that we ought to avoid certain thoughts as well as certain actions. This idea is important for the notion of perfecting oneself morally, in so far as one can, and just accepting the existence of evil thoughts as neither here nor there does not do justice to the need for ethical improvement, it seems to me. It implies an attitude of self-satisfaction to one's moral character, and it is for that reason that allowing such thoughts to remain unchallenged is indeed to admit to a moral flaw.