Ethics and Law

It was suggested that, when considering the ethics of consequences, that there is limited value in considering the consequences of past actions, except as a method of deriving guidance, from experience, for making decisions that will have consequences in the future.

Past action is also the primary concern of law, which seeks to add punishment in arrears as a method of justice, to "correct" the effects of a historical action and to add to the negative consequences of future actions of the same nature. If a person acts in a way that harms others, but does no harm to himself, he may not be dissuaded from undertaking the same action again in future, and doing further harm to others.

This leads to the topic of law, which is a different topic than I had intended to address in this blog - but it cannot be altogether avoided, as the judicial system adds punitive consequences to an action: one may undertake an action that is not harmful to anyone, and the legal system may cause harm to the actor.

When making a decision in which one may expect there to be legal consequences, to oneself of others, these consequences bear consideration and may influence the decision. However, they are inconsequential to the ethical consideration of an action: what is prohibited by law is not necessarily "wrong" and what is permitted (or required) by law is not necessarily "right."

Neither would it be correct to say that the legal consequences are consequences of the action itself. The action of punishment (or reward) is the result of an entirely separate decision, often made by an entirely separate actor.

From a practical perspective, it is worthwhile to consider punishment or reward in the decision as to whether to take an action. From an ethical perspective, punishment and reward are a separate matter.