LogFAQs > #907976316

Zeus posted...

the concept of good motives vs bad ones -- ie, a selfish motive negates a good deed -- which is something that's occasionally been discussed during the usual alignment talks

In a universe where morality is objective, and omniscient powers can know exactly what you were thinking when you did something, intent absolutely trumps results. And even in the real world, "evil" people can do good things for "evil" reasons.

Some people divide the alignment axis between morals (Good/Evil) and ethics (Law/Chaos), but I prefer to think of it more as Motive (Good/Evil) and Method (Law/Chaos). Motive is why you do what you do - Method is how you do what you do.

In that sense, intent vs outcome can be reflected in Alignment (ie, your evil intent makes your Alignment Evil, but achieving your ends via legal and beneficial means makes you Lawful instead of Chaotic). In the same way, if you're willing to do "bad" things in order to accomplish noble goals, you're pushing towards Chaotic Good (unless you're just using noble motives as an excuse to be a shitty person, in which case you're into Knight Templar or Well-Intentioned Extremist territory, and "Good" starts shifting towards "Neutral", or even potentially "Evil").

As I've mentioned in the past, I also tend to see the Good/Evil axis as a question of selfless/selfish/sadistic, but when combined with the above, it also has elements of "the ends justify the means" (the more Evil outlook) versus "the means determine the ends" (the Good outlook).


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