The "Gray" areas
Many people might agree with the statement, "True, it's hard to decide whether some actions are 'right,' but I'm certain there are some things no one should ever do!" That is, many believe that despite the existence of considerable moral gray, one can find at least some instances of black and white. Can we compile a list of such instances? This task is far more difficult than it sounds for two reasons.
First, the goodness of actions considered in isolation apart from circumstances and intention, remains largely indeterminate. The framework for analysis we set up in the previous section strips an action to its bare essentials, addressing only the questions "what?" and "how?". Answers to the questions "who?", "when?", "where?", and "why?" are accounted for separately. How does this separation of action from intention and circumstances play out? Take the example of "murder," which most people agree is always wrong. Within our framework, "murder" does not really specify an action alone; the word also implies something about the motive of the killer and the moral state of the victim. "Murder" implies that the killer has given full consideration to the act (in opposition to "manslaughter") and that the victim is innocent (in opposition to "capital punishment"). In fact, "murder," "manslaughter," and "capital punishment" all denote the same simple action: homicide. Yet because of the differing intention and circumstances, most people would assign differing levels of goodness to the three kinds of killing. In fact, the method we have constructed makes this distinction by considering actions in isolation and adding in other factors later. However, such an approach makes a blanket assignment of black or white to particular actions very difficult. No doubt the list of such actions so classified is probably too short to aid in everyday decision making.
Second, even where such assignments of black and white are possible, people cannot agree on what actions should be so classified. The principles governing such assignments seem to devolve mainly from considerations of philosophy or religion, and need to be argued on those grounds. Many examples have historically come from religious traditions, ranging from preserving sacred cows to wearing a veil in public. Given the multiplicity of such traditions, the list of proscribed (and prescribed) actions varies widely from person to person.
