Sentence examples for morally desirable action from inspiring English sources

For example, he suggests that the presence of a strong pro-moral desire might positively influence the moral worth of a morally desirable action even if it does not lead to high level of Effort Exerted (say, because Effort Required is low).

Suppose that an agent exerts an amount of effort, e, to perform a morally desirable action whose degree of moral desirability is m.

It is widely believed that the moral worth of a morally desirable action depends in part on whether it was an accident that the agent performed a morally desirable action; as Barbara Herman puts it, "we need to know that it was no accident that the agent acted as duty required" (1981, p. 368).

He posits two core relations between effort and moral worth: The effort that the agent exerted in performing the morally desirable action (henceforth, 'Effort Expended') positively influences moral worth, in the sense that, at least over some range, increased Effort Expended makes for morally worthier action.

Kelly Sorensen defends a model of the relationship between effort and moral worth in which the effort exerted in performing a morally desirable action contributes positively to the action's moral worth, but the effort required to perform the action detracts from its moral worth.

The level of effort that an agent expends to perform a morally desirable action will depend on the strength of her 'pro-moral' desires.

Taken together, these intuitive reactions (along with reactions to two further cases that lie at different points on the spectrum of effort) lead him to suggest that there is a U-shaped relationship between effort and moral worth: the moral worth of morally desirable actions is greatest at high and low levels of effort, and lowest at moderate levels.

Sorensen suggests that, in addition to being morally desirable actions, both of these actions intuitively possess a high degree of moral worth, which is to say that the agents warrant a high degree of moral praise for having done those acts.

Sorensen's model of the relationship between effort and moral worth is, I think, close to the mark, at least if we assume, as I will, that it is intended to apply only to morally desirable actions that meet all non-effort-based conditions for possessing positive moral worth.

Yet effort could also be required to perform morally desirable actions because of external barriers.

Sorensen distinguishes between cases in which Effort Required is low because the agent possesses a "naturally good character" and those in which Effort Required is low because the agent has exerted effort to develop a character that makes morally desirable actions easy (p. 103).