Situation When Doing Good is Wrong

ACTING OUT OF A SENSE OF ONE’S DUTY CAN BE WRONG 3
Acting Out of a Sense of One’s Duty Can Be Wrong
An example to illustrate how one can be acting out of duty and they end up causing more harm than if they had not done anything is in assisting accident victims. When an accident occurs, people will rush and they will attempt to assist the injured persons, however, there are situations where the good samaritan assisting the injured could cause more harm than if they had left the victims and waited for paramedics or firefighters. If an accident victim is pulled or moved from the car without proper care being taken, it could result in the victim suffering more and increasing their injuries. Although the act of kindness being shown by assisting the victim is out of duty the victim could become paralyzed, suffer severe bleeding, or aggravate spinal injuries.
Looking at Kant’s moral philosophy, assisting the accident victim would be done out of duty and not gain anything in return. Therefore, the person assisting the accident victim would be doing what they consider to be morally right (Köllen, 2016). However, since they do not have the proper training on how best to handle such a situation, they might end up hurting the victim further.
The motivation of the act is what determines if the individual is acting from duty or in accordance with duty. The individual helping an injured person is doing this from duty. This is because they are not inclined to do so and they do not gain any pleasure from assisting the victim. However, if the individual is assisting the individual so that they can be considered to be a hero then they are doing it in accordance with duty. This should not be confused with one gaining fame or publicity after they have assisted the victim. According to Kant (2017), it is the motive that determines the worth of an action. Therefore, the consequences of the action should not be used to assess the moral worth of the action. It is only the motive that can be used to assess the moral worth of the action (Korsgaard, 2014). If the good samaritan gains publicity after they have done their duty, then they cannot be accused of having done the action with the motive of gaining publicity.
When a person is assisting another injured individual, they are doing so because that is the right thing to do and not to harm or cause further injury to the individual. The motive of the person assisting is what is considered to be a goodwill (Kant, 2017). Provided they have no intention to cause further injury or to gain something in return then they are doing what is morally right. Even if the deed results in further injury to the individual, it is still considered a goodwill. This is because a good will is not determined by the consequences, but rather by the motive. Doing the right thing because it is right and not for some ulterior motive.
It is quite hard to determine one\\\\'s own motives, which means that duty and inclination often coexist. If one is not able to determine their own motives, how will they be able to determine that of others? Therefore, it is not easy to know for sure why a person does something. Kant accepts this fact and points out that it is not possible for an individual to perform morally worthy acts all the time. It is for this reason that we should identify the motive of duty and determine if an action is done for its principle or for its consequences.


References
Kant, I. (2017). Kant: The metaphysics of morals: Cambridge University Press.
Köllen, T. (2016). Acting out of compassion, egoism, and malice: A Schopenhauerian view on the moral worth of CSR and diversity management practices. Journal of Business Ethics, 138(2), 215-229.
Korsgaard, C. M. (2014). From duty and for the sake of the noble: Kant and Aristotle on morally good action Kant on Emotion and Value (pp. 33-68): Springer.