Do Good Intentions Justify Bad Actions?

Abstract

Abstract The comparison is between the biographies of a dedicated communist commander of one of the Gulag camps and of a Nazi SS officer. Each is guilty of having done very bad actions. Each believed that his intentions were good and that his bad actions were justified in the circumstances. One intended to protect his country against its enemies. The other intended to save as many lives as he could by means of his bad actions in order to gain the trust of other SS officers. He was an intentional collaborator in the crimes of the SS, but he thereby saved many lives. A reasonable answer to this hard question depends on whether their intentions were really good or merely believed to be so; on what the overall balance was of their good and bad the actions; on whether they should have had doubts about the nature of their intentions and actions; and what the justification of their bad actions was supposed to be. There are reasonable answers, but they vary with persons, intentions, actions, and contexts. If we bear in mind the questionable good intentions of the communist and the Nazi, we should become less trusting of our own supposedly good intentions and more attentive to the likely consequences of our actions.