And last but not least, the table will tell you how to make it
seems that we must have at least an implicit understanding of what it is that makes an action moral and what distinguishes it from non-moral acts. One way of becoming clearer about how we draw this distinction would be to search for the criteria that we use in order to identify moral actions. This approach to clarifying a concept is common practice in philosophy. It involves trying to uncover the rules we use to make the distinction, or the features we search for when judging an action to be moral. A good way to start doing this is to reflect on what is going on when making such judgements, as you will do in the next activity. Read through the following situations, and for each one decide whether it is a) good, b) bad or c) morally neutral. (You should judge the situations on the information given and according to your own moral intuitions.) 1 A deer is caught in a forest fire caused by a freak lightning strike and is burnt to death. 2 A killer whale toys with a seal that it has half killed - batting it into the air with its tail and catching it with its teeth. It takes twenty minutes before the seal finally dies. The whale leaves it to rot on the ocean floor. 3 You deliberately step on someone's toe in a lift but pretend it was an accident. 4 You accidentally poison your neighbour's dog. 5 You beat your friend in an ant-killing competition (with a winning combination of bleach and boiling water). 6 You persistently bullied a classmate at school. 7 A rich billionaire builds herself a space rocket and leaves Earth forever. For the rest of her life none of her actions ever affects another living thing. Could any of her future actions be good or bad (a or b) or will they all be morally neutral (c)? 8 You successfully pass the ball to members of your team 15 times in a 1-1 draw at a friendly local hockey match. 9 An orphanage is set up to help victims in a war-torn country. 10 A builder shouts 'Nice legs!' to a person walking past. 1 1 You stop to help a blind man cross the road but fail to notice the unstoppable juggernaut that injures you both. 12 An evil scientist releases a new bio-chemical into the water supp of a large city intending to kill millions. However, this agent, when diluted, turns out to be a harmless cure for cancer and countless lives are saved. Now make a note of all those actions that you decided were moral neutral. You may find it helpful to draw up a table as follows and to list some of the features that moral actions/ morally neutral actions have in common. What is it that makes an action morally neutral? will probably find that it's more than just one thing. On the other size
