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A Couple of 25-cent Legal terms
5 years ago
And yet another page in the Rinkan Memoir
So I'm a law student. I, like many law students, shove that fact (sorry lol) into roughly 60% of my conversations. That of course being a conservative estimate.
That being said, there's some things that I learn in law school that are INCREDIBLY useful for us in the outside furry world. Things my Property professor likes to call "25-cent legal terms." So here's a couple terms for people to learn about.
INTENT vs MOTIVE
Intentional actions is defined by the 3rd Restatement of Torts (paraphrasing) as an action that someone voluntarily makes against another person, anticipating or having knowledge to a substantial certainty that something is going to happen because of hte action taken.
Motive is defined as the logic or reasoning behind the action that someone otherwise voluntarily makes.
Now that we have that out of the way, I'll rephrase both in the most simplest terms.
Intent is the "what" of your actions. Motive is your "why" of the action. If I pull a weapon on you in a dark alleyway, I know for a fact that you are going to believe to some degree of certainty that I'm going to attack you regardless of whether I do it. I may have wanted to show off something cool or maybe the "weapon" was really a gift. But the reasoning or my motive is irrelevant when I know that "Hmm... bringing you to a dark alleyway to show you this cool bat I found might make you think I'm gonna swing it at you."
Now take that logic and apply it to anything, including but not limited to a conversation or even a comment on someone's profile/ piece of art. If you do something knowing how someone may respond, especially if that response is in the negative, then maybe you shouldn't do it? "Oh I was just bantering." "Oh I thought it would be funny!" "Oh I didn't mean for it to come out that way"
Those responses become moot because you were so focused on the "why," you failed to realize WHAT you were doing.
So yeah. TL:DR think about your actions. And not just "why" you do something. Because if we're still hung up on "what" you did, maybe the reason isn't the issue here at all, and the action itself is.
That being said, there's some things that I learn in law school that are INCREDIBLY useful for us in the outside furry world. Things my Property professor likes to call "25-cent legal terms." So here's a couple terms for people to learn about.
INTENT vs MOTIVE
Intentional actions is defined by the 3rd Restatement of Torts (paraphrasing) as an action that someone voluntarily makes against another person, anticipating or having knowledge to a substantial certainty that something is going to happen because of hte action taken.
Motive is defined as the logic or reasoning behind the action that someone otherwise voluntarily makes.
Now that we have that out of the way, I'll rephrase both in the most simplest terms.
Intent is the "what" of your actions. Motive is your "why" of the action. If I pull a weapon on you in a dark alleyway, I know for a fact that you are going to believe to some degree of certainty that I'm going to attack you regardless of whether I do it. I may have wanted to show off something cool or maybe the "weapon" was really a gift. But the reasoning or my motive is irrelevant when I know that "Hmm... bringing you to a dark alleyway to show you this cool bat I found might make you think I'm gonna swing it at you."
Now take that logic and apply it to anything, including but not limited to a conversation or even a comment on someone's profile/ piece of art. If you do something knowing how someone may respond, especially if that response is in the negative, then maybe you shouldn't do it? "Oh I was just bantering." "Oh I thought it would be funny!" "Oh I didn't mean for it to come out that way"
Those responses become moot because you were so focused on the "why," you failed to realize WHAT you were doing.
So yeah. TL:DR think about your actions. And not just "why" you do something. Because if we're still hung up on "what" you did, maybe the reason isn't the issue here at all, and the action itself is.
