Should the happiness of others be the primary motivator for moral action?

Depends on your values. =P

I struggle with this one, and I say, that it depends on the situation.

This is gonna be one of those hecka broad discussions, ha ha.

Lol

No. But the safety of them should be. If it makes you happy to kill people you shouldn't do it just because it makes you happy. Then again they'd probably be happy that they weren't dead... if they knew you wanted to kill them.

this made me smile. 'cause it's such a naive point of view. i wish the real world was this simple, and of course in an impossibly ideal world everyone would be 'happy'.

i agree with you though, it's not necessarily happiness that should warrant 'moral action', but 'safety' or one's right to live.

then again, who decides what one's rights are?

^Nobody does. If I had to choose whether I want to be happy or my friends, I would choose my friends.

^ in a way, you making your friends happy would also make you happy.

Your own happiness should be your own driving force, but it should adhere to keeping the well-being of others in tact.

It's sort of an irrelevant question given my philosophical "understanding" of "human nature." I'm an adherent of selfism and psychological egoism - I think all men act in self-interest and are incapable to treat, as Kant proposed as a criteria for truly "moral action," other human beings as an end as opposed to a means. So, since all people have the primary concern of of themselves, they couldn't even act in order, merely, to ensure the happiness of others.

Secondly, happiness is a very ambiguous and broad term. To revolve any moral theory around such an idea is an effort in futility.

And, lastly, the question is even more irrelevant given my stance of amoralism. If you don't believe in morality in the first place, the question is sort of meaningless. And, even if you do believe in morality, I would argue the question is still meaningless - y'all just don't realize it yet.

lol, you and Kant, of all people.

Dude, I hate that guy.