• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

"It's the thought that counts."

R

ReflecTcelfeR

Guest
Is a socially unacceptable thought equally as abhorrent as a socially unacceptable action?
 

Blank

.
Joined
Mar 10, 2009
Messages
1,201
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w6
That depends on the context. Certainly thinking about stabbing your boss in the face is socially unacceptable, but it's not really punishable by law until you begin actively planning to do it...but we also condemn racists for having socially unacceptable views as much as those who actually commit hate crimes (within reason.)

Some thoughts you have no control over. What if you (accidentally or not) harmed someone in a dream? You technically thought about it on some level. Should you be punished for it? (Maybe you will if your religion demands it, but it's not something that could be enforced.)


Not to go too off-topic: when I think of the phrase "it's the thought that counts," it tends to apply in a context in which someone has failed to appease someone else despite their effort...or if something is unappreciated. To me, the thought behind this thread is closer to the saying "the path to hell is lined in good intentions."

Nevertheless, we often say "actions speak louder than words." So while it may be "bad" to think about something awful, it's "worse" to actually do it.
 

INTP

Active member
Joined
Jul 31, 2009
Messages
7,803
MBTI Type
intp
Enneagram
5w4
Instinctual Variant
sx
You are misusing the phrase, it doesent apply to that type of thing, it never even meant to mean that..
 

Totenkindly

@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
50,187
MBTI Type
BELF
Enneagram
594
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
You don't know what someone is thinking.
You can experience what someone does and it has lingering effects upon others.

Considering how someone can have thoughts without having much choice in the thinking of them, but does have some degree of control over actions, it seems that actions are more reflective of moral inclination than thoughts.

You are misusing the phrase, it doesent apply to that type of thing, it never even meant to mean that..

Yes, is it morally wrong to hijack a thought and press it into servitude to serve one's basest unrelated argument? The inquiring mind wants to know.
 

Magic Poriferan

^He pronks, too!
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
14,081
MBTI Type
Yin
Enneagram
One
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Absolutely not. Thoughts without actions have far less consequences. Furthermore, it's not practical to consider them because they are much harder, if not impossible, to monitor.
 
R

ReflecTcelfeR

Guest
No need to get caught up in the phrase. It doesn't make sense to title it "Actions speak louder than words" because words are actions.
 

FunnyDigestion

New member
Joined
Mar 18, 2011
Messages
1,126
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
4
I think you can summarize this issue with a philosophical quote from Oscar Wilde.

"If a tree falls in the forest, does anyone get raped?"

- Oscar Wilde

When you read this, you start to see what Oscar was getting at. Go ahead & think. Don't rape anyone.
 

Munchies

New member
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
468
MBTI Type
XNXP
Enneagram
OMG
Instinctual Variant
sx
Is a socially unacceptable thought equally as abhorrent as a socially unacceptable action?


So is a subjectively unacceptable thought equally as objectively wrong as a subjectively unnacceptable action? Objectively speaking, no.

But subjectively there are infinite differnt thoughts and actions and sociall cultures and infinite ways to perceive these things, so in that case, yes
 

Such Irony

Honor Thy Inferior
Joined
Jul 23, 2010
Messages
5,059
MBTI Type
INtp
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
That depends on the context. Certainly thinking about stabbing your boss in the face is socially unacceptable, but it's not really punishable by law until you begin actively planning to do it...but we also condemn racists for having socially unacceptable views as much as those who actually commit hate crimes (within reason.)

Some thoughts you have no control over. What if you (accidentally or not) harmed someone in a dream? You technically thought about it on some level. Should you be punished for it? (Maybe you will if your religion demands it, but it's not something that could be enforced.)


Not to go too off-topic: when I think of the phrase "it's the thought that counts," it tends to apply in a context in which someone has failed to appease someone else despite their effort...or if something is unappreciated. To me, the thought behind this thread is closer to the saying "the path to hell is lined in good intentions."

Nevertheless, we often say "actions speak louder than words." So while it may be "bad" to think about something awful, it's "worse" to actually do it.

These are my thoughts exactly.

On a related note, if we have a socially unacceptable thought, to what extent should we censor those thoughts from others? For example, if I hate something about a certain race or someone makes me so upset I want to punch them?
 
Top