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Lets say, someone walking through a road saw an accident happened beside his walkway. Now if the person who was walking didn’t go and save the injured, can we say he did an immoral act?

Can an inaction be labelled as moral or immoral?

Sazzad Hissain Khan
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  • Yes it can, when one fails to do their moral duty, help a man in need, stop a crime, etc. The Biblical name for it is [sin of omission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin_of_omission), see also [SEP, Doing vs. Allowing Harm](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/doing-allowing/). – Conifold Mar 28 '21 at 07:34
  • @Conifold yes it answered – Sazzad Hissain Khan Mar 28 '21 at 07:41
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    It's neither. First you need to define what makes someone moral; and I've seen lots of philosophers discussing it with no agreement. – MathematicalPhysicist Mar 28 '21 at 08:26
  • @MathematicalPhysicist I also find no valid argument. Trying to find one. Now answer that, what if a little boy drowning into a pond and you are the only saviour? If you ignore and let the boy die will it be immoral? – Sazzad Hissain Khan Mar 28 '21 at 11:45
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    @SazzadHissainKhan as I said you should first define what is it to be "moral"? otherwise as Manuel Bremer gives in his introductory book on paraconsistent logic with contradictory choices you might as well do whatever you choose. For example say the only saviour of the boy doesn't know how to swim... we can cook a lot of such examples. – MathematicalPhysicist Mar 28 '21 at 12:15
  • @MathematicalPhysicist its better to ask the questioner instead presuming precondition. What if the only savour does know swimming and sitting idle on the bank. I define foundation of morality towards maximising wellbeing. Now whats your answer? – Sazzad Hissain Khan Mar 28 '21 at 15:58
  • @SazzadHissainKhan if he knows how to swim and he's not scared of helping the boy then by all means he should help that boy. But as you already gather morals is a relative thing. Hitler thought that by killing the jews he helped his country men and women, he regarded the jews as pesticides. Was he wrong? was he immoral? according to his standards he was moral and the jews were the immoral beings. Who is right? there's no God to help you here. – MathematicalPhysicist Mar 28 '21 at 16:06

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