Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/157

 §2. Analysis of a Typical Moral Action. In order to make clear the relation between motive and consequence, let us examine a typical moral action. A certain school-girl is very jealous of a rival, and in an important examination cheats in order to obtain a coveted scholarship. Incidentally the winner of the scholarship is always required to recite a Latin ode. The girl's dishonesty is discovered, and she is expelled. If we analyse this action, we may distinguish several factors, (a) The girl has a certain feeling towards her rival: she is jealous of her. (b) She has a certain aim in cheating: she wants to secure the scholarship, and she acts in order to attain this end. (c) She foresees that the realisation of this end involves as an accompaniment or accessory the recitation of the Latin ode. She does not act as she does in order to recite the ode. She does not want to do that. But she recognises that she cannot have the scholarship without this accessory, (d) The actual result of her action is her expulsion from school.

So far, we have analysed the action completely without mentioning the words motive, intention, and consequence. But we must now ask, with reference to this concrete moral action, what these important ethical terms mean. The girl's motive for doing the action included her feeling of jealousy, and also the end which she wished to attain. Her intention in doing the action included the end which she purposed and the accompaniment which she foresaw. The total consequence of the action, as foreseen by her, was identical with the intention. The actual consequence, however, i.e. her expulsion from school,