Frankly Existential

Charity

Charity as an act is a form of sacrifice. Sacrifice is often seen as a selfless act, morally good, for the sake of someone outside of ourselves. Just like with charity, however, sacrifice does not make you sacrificial. Just because you do something that many believe is good does not make it so.

As Immanuel Kant said in his Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, “There is no possibility of thinking of anything at all in the world, or even out of it, which can be regarded as good without qualification, except a good will.” In simpler terms, the only inherent moral good is that of good intent. The acts we carry out are only good if we do so to be good.

Are you donating to charity because your wish is to assist those in need? Or are you donating because you will feel good about yourself and want a good looking tax exemption? Just because you give to a good cause does not mean you did a good deed. You just did a deed that had a positive outcome. Does this make a difference? Greatly so. Outcomes are not what makes an act, or a person for that matter, good or bad. Anyone can do something “good” on accident.

Intentions are rarely purely good. Motives are buried within everything. If that’s the case, is anyone truly good? It’s still possible. Not everyone is selfish in their actions. And not all selfish actions are necessarily bad, but it’s hard to argue that they are morally good.

To add my own expansion onto Kant’s former idea, the only good intention is that of love. Acting out of pure love is acting our of true good intent. This does not have to be romantic love. Saint Thomas Aquinas points out in his Summa Theologia (Vol 2 Q26 Art. 4) that love is “to wish good to someone.” To want the best for someone is to love them. Selfish acts, if motivated by self-love and to truly treat yourself in the best way you deserve, are therefore good acts. (Note this does not mean simply fueling your egoistic desires. Those are usually damaging, and you wouldn’t damage the ones you love.)

Egoism and Love are the two forces that drive our decision making. Love seems to always be good, while egoism tends to be bad. I say “tends to” because it seems that egoistic acts can fall into a moral neutrality, but I don’t believe they can ever be good. The ego creates desires that oppose our true values. Love is a universal necessity for a good life. In my view, life is nothing without love.

So let’s wrap up going back to charity. To be charitable, charity must come from love. Plain and simple. Love for the cause, love for those that are benefitting from the charity. No feeling of self-satisfaction makes charity good, even though it makes one feel good. To be charitable, to be good, is to love. Live a life of love. Love as much as you can. Love others and love yourself. The good life is the loving life.

I want to do something different. I want to open up optional responses for opinions on this piece. Today’s question will be:
Is love the answer and, if it isn’t, what do you think it is?
Use the text field below or, if you’d like to respond publicly, feel free to leave a comment.

Thank you for reading and be well.