Pragmatism must be constrained by ethics or the action cannot be good.
Compromise is often inherent in this process – this may undermine both the effectiveness and / or the goodness of the action.
The same tensions as exist for the individual good action triangle are here also, but are amplified by the interactions of the group and individual ethics.
Even when intentions are wholly good – outcomes are are often not leading to the perceptions of incompetence, hypocrisy or malpractice.
When compromise leads to ethical “cost” to archive good outcomes humility and even penitence may me the appropriate action to maintain an ethical principle of action. For example a collective decision to fight a “just war” does not remove the need for contrition in respect of suffering inflicted.
