Can something be "wrong" if no harm is done?

Question

Seriously, can something be unethical or immoral if it does not cause direct harm to some one else? If not, then why does "morality" so often applied to a person's personal business?

Answer 1

In my opinion morals represent the respectful way to conduct yourself around and with other people. So if you're referring to personal business as in sexual conduct then the consent of all persons involved should be the only basis on which to consider morality.

Answer 2

My personal feel is that if something does not cause harm to anyone else, then it should not be considered unethical or immoral. A person's private life is their own affair. The only exception to this would be the exposure of a political figure as a hypocrite if they were having an affair but preaching family values, or taking a bribe but preaching honesty.

The trick then is to define "harm". Is it to be restricted to physical harm only? Emotional harm included? How about direct or indirect harm? Is driving your car immoral? You pollute the atmosphere and harm the environment, which then harms plant and animal habitat and has a knock-on effect for weather and climate. A lot of things could become unethical and immoral if the full effects of ones actions are considered.

Answer 3

"Harm done" is not the definition of wrong. If you make a wrong turn onto a one way street you haven't done any harm, unless you run into someone. In the moral vaccuum that we live in today many think that it's ok to do "wrong" and that their habit of doing wrong isn't going to effect anything. But how many times do you think you can take a wrong turn because you have been brainwashed to think that you can do whatever you want before you turn the corner and face the ultimate obstacle?

Answer 4

Well, have you considered that doing something wrong or unethical may harm yourself, even if no-one else is harmed. Gradually this can lead to further self harm, where there can be a risk that you will start to harm others. After all, we are not cut off from others, even though we may perceive ourselves to be.

Answer 5

Yes, something can be wrong if no harm is done.

If you take a gun with six chambers, load three of them with bullets, spin it to a random chamber, point the gun at the head of a passing stranger, and pull the trigger, is that immoral?

Fifty percent of the time, it will cause the stranger harm. Fifty percent of the time, it will not. Doing this is still wrong one hundred percent of the time.

Morality depends on the intent, not on the actual results.

Answer 6

The easiest way to answer this question is to define ethics. You can't determine if something is unethical if you don't know what ethics means. The easiest explination i've heard is very simply: Reasoned, impartial decision about right and wrong. Take that definition and apply it to whatever decision you're talking about and you should have your answer.

Answer 7

Well if you restrict your definition to a very narrow one of "wrong by definition is not doing harm to others", then of course, that works.

The problem is: How did you arrive at the conclusion that is the ONLY test of right and wrong? Is there a consequence to others if your defintion of right and wrong is wrong? What evidence do you have or what epistimology are you invoking to demonstrate that this is in fact correct?

I could go on, but in essence, you are raising a not-necessarily valid point by committing a logical error in your starting assumption. If your assumptions is invalid, which many would think it is, then your question falls apart...


Soli Deo Gloria

Answer 8

how certain are you that you can see all the effects any particular action has or doesn't have?

I mean the idea being something that is "a person's personal business" might have effects directly or indirectly on others or themself in a negative ways that are not obvious, how sure are you that you KNOW all the effects any particular action has?

Answer 9

Yes. But at the same time, it could be argued (from a christian perspective) that it is impossible to do something that is "wrong" without damage of some kind being done at some level.

Answer 10

Morality is yourself as a human. It is applied publicly and privately. It is who you are in the open and behind closed doors. The immoral thing is what you do, not who sees.