The Moral Worth of Mixed Actions

Ordinary people often act from both motives that are good and motives that are not. How should we assess the moral worth or value of these actions from mixed motives? Having neglected these actions, the recent literature leaves us with no obvious answer. In this paper, I develop an answer. A mixed action, I argue, can be morally worthy even if it is done neither purely from good motives nor partly from good motives that suffice in a relevant sense to prompt it. If and to what degree it can be morally worthy should be settled by weighing the goodness of its motives against their badness. And two properties of each motive, its intentional object and its motivational strength, together determine the degree of value that it contributes to the action’s net worth.