readily be seen that there can be only one answer to this question. The rightness of an action depends upon the motive, the total motive, with which it is performed.
The controversy which has raged between those who believe that motive is the criterion, and those who are convinced that the only objective test is consequence, is very largely due to a failure to take the terms motive and consequence in the strict sense. It has sometimes been argued, for instance, that motive means (1) merely the feeling with which the action is performed, or (2) merely the end or aim which is purposed. Now, if motive be taken in either of these partial senses, it is clear that the rightness of an action cannot depend on the motive. This may be shown in detail in each of the two cases.
(1) If motive be taken in the former sense, it means the actual feeling, emotion, or desire, which impels the action or accompanies it during its performance. A man may be moved by compassion for a beggar, and this emotion may impel the action of giving him a coin. Or he may be carried away by intense anger, and be immediately impelled to action. But in every case in which a man acts in obedience solely to the impulsion of a feeling, his action is not really a completely moral action. Such actions are literally impulsive, for they have not been deliberated on. They are not purposeful: they have no definite aim in view.
If we take deliberate and purposeful actions such as Joffre's and the deceitful girl's, in which, as we have seen, there is both a definite end and a system of feelings, can we say that the rightness of the
