Jeff Russell

I agree, I think my confusion is stemming from a different worldview: the very notion of identifying proscriptively (rather than descriptively) is foreign to me, and I would consider even Alice to be a very strange person! (Maybe I'm the very strange one? :) )

It could be that I'm running into the conflict of two useful rules of thumb:

• "A tree is known by its fruit." (So, Alice's impure motivations are justified by their good outcomes.)
  
• "When the wrong man does the right thing, it usually turns out wrong." (So, Alice's good outcomes are contaminated by her impure motivations.)

I'll have to spend some time pondering it, I think.