opening doors for others.
Bob opens a door for Alice. Can we consider this to be a good deed of the likes of a Boy Scout helping a little old lady cross the street? Can we tell by actions alone? If our magic mind reader machine indicates that Bob is opening the door for Alice because Alice is a woman, does the good deed suddenly become evil? Does intention alter the deed? If our magic mind reader machine is on the fritz (and mine’s been in the shop for years), then how will we ever know good door openers from evil ones?
Is the evilness of an act defined by intent alone? If someone does the right thing for all the wrong reasons, is the deed an evil deed? Or is the evilness of an act defined solely by the objective, negative effects of an act? If there are no objective negative effects, only positive objective effects, but the thoughts behind the deed are pure evil, is the act evil or good?
Greg | 16-Nov-12 at 9:55 pm | Permalink
Should we attack Bob for his door opening ways just in case he is committing Chivalry in order to feel better about his more Feudalistic ways?
Should we attack Bob for opening doors because if men open doors, it’s only a matter of time before women lose the right to vote, the right to inherit, the right to own property, and the right to control their bodies?
If Bob’s door opening behavior is just the tip of a Feudalistic Woman Hating Iceberg, should we attack the door opening under the assumption that there is such an iceberg underneath part we see?
Or, if Bob really is a Feudalistic Woman Hating Iceberg, could we wait until Bob reveals his nature in some manner more foul than opening doors for women, and attack those foul ways?
If we assume that door opening is the tip of a Feudalistic Woman Hating Iceberg, and we attack Bob for door opening, but then it turned out that door opening is the only sexist thing Bob does, then what?