I'm with Kamikaze Midget here, more or less. It's subjective. It's an interesting question, though, and you really could base an entitre campaign around it.
There's a question of Situational Ethics involved. Is it wrong to use mind altering magic to compel someone to give you all their money and have sex with you? I think just about everyone would say yes. Is it wrong to use the same mind-altering magic to compel someone not to attack you? That's trickier. Is it better or worse than just frying your attacker with a lightning bolt?
Another question: is it more likely that a society would lump all magic together as immoral, rather than try to identify Good or Bad uses of magic? It makes sense that people would be superstitious out of fear. But, then, it would be worth the effort to try to work out some kind of code of ethics when you consider how useful magic is. Sooner or later, some wealthy merchant is going to want to justify using a Teleport to transport his cargo...
There's a question of Situational Ethics involved. Is it wrong to use mind altering magic to compel someone to give you all their money and have sex with you? I think just about everyone would say yes. Is it wrong to use the same mind-altering magic to compel someone not to attack you? That's trickier. Is it better or worse than just frying your attacker with a lightning bolt?
Another question: is it more likely that a society would lump all magic together as immoral, rather than try to identify Good or Bad uses of magic? It makes sense that people would be superstitious out of fear. But, then, it would be worth the effort to try to work out some kind of code of ethics when you consider how useful magic is. Sooner or later, some wealthy merchant is going to want to justify using a Teleport to transport his cargo...
