an action is truly only virtuous when
>you choose it knowingly
>you choose it for it's own sake (not avoiding punishment, to get praise, to manipulate events in a Machiavellian way etc)
>it's consistent with your character and not random or performative

Would you still do it if no one ever found out? Do you think it is driving you towards thriving/your telos?

>>34220495
a good start.

but more fundamentally, you kinda have to at some point you use your judgement to decide what you're chosen to do is in fact good, and also that your reason for doing so is morally right.

Thats actually easy to figure out. Because nothing is perfect, you have to work within a threshold and that threshold is this:

Is what you're doing considered good across a wide enough array of considerations (time, opportunity, benefit, effort, people affected, etc etc etc) that it justifies itself as something to be done? Because something good now, may not be something good later, something that used to take $10 that now takes $10000 to do may require a change, etc etc.

>>34220419
It doesn't matter. The good thing is done.

Schindler saved a lot of Jews so they could work in his factory and make him rich. But the only relevant fact is that he saved them.

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It's easy to figure out good and bad actions - if they benefit the other in a direct an palpable way. Like for example, donating meals to homeless people.

However, as you move up in complexity, it becomes increasingly murkier whether your well-meaning actions produce the same effect. There are plenty of examples of people trying to do the right thing and actually ending up with disastrous effects.

Sometimes they feel as if they're on their calling - but actually are helping some rich dude increase their pockets while actually increasing divide and inequality.

>>34220419
>How can you tell if you're doing something good for the right reason?
If the thing you're doing really is good, your motives don't matter.

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>>34220419
I appreciate the way the question is phrased.
>right reason
First ask yourself is each outcome that you desire from the action acceptable and justified? If the answer continues to be an affirmative yes after you apply the silver and golden rules, then you can be certain it's the right reason.
Whether the action is good or not depends on the execution and the actual results of it,

Fuck you Marcus.
There's no right or wrong reason, this world isn't built on virtue or logic it's built on actions and consequences.

The right thing is that which yields a good outcome, even if ill intended. You do not "do" something good, that's Christian moralism, baby jesus isn't watching you from the sky judging your every action. The world judges you based on the consequences of what you did, which is often totally unfair, and sees you castigated even if you tried to do the "right thing".

What is a good outcome?
That which brings power, the feeling power increases, the ozone layer, the African children, your mom, i don't know.
But I feel like you're asking about the reason here rather then the outcome and that's your problem.

They continue to do it when there is no gain

>>34220419
Read plato if you're asking silly nerd questions like this

>>34220419
I won't read yet another please help me think right thread by some subhuman moron who reached adulthood without any no clue how to think, because nothing can be done.

>>34221182
> that's Christian moralism,

as opposed to any other?

>>34220419
kinda need to cop sheldon's fit here