Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
Suppose that I shoplift a $10 book from Barnes and Noble and then put my $10 bill in the bucket of someone right outside the door collecting for cancer research. I haven't done it, but somebody has! The consequence of that theft was, I hope we both agree, good. Do you seriously think I should then be excused from all legal sanctions for my theft?
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There's no point just making up what you think I would think about some completely different action. You've kind of captured one aspect of it, but all the external ramifications are different to pirating a $10 ebook. If you are interested in consequentialist moral theory it's probably better to go read about it directly rather than my getting involved in some baroque discussion about imaginary scenarios.