Warren Quinn's 1989 account distinguishes direct from oblique intention by whether the victim's suffering is exploited as part of the agent's operative plan, independent of the agent's emotional response to that suffering.

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Direct intention(in ethics and action theory): When you aim to bring about something as your main goal—for example, intending to hurt someone because hurting them is what you're trying to accomplish.
Oblique intention(in ethics and action theory): When something happens as a side effect of your main goal, even though you knew it would happen—for example, hurting someone as a necessary but unwanted consequence of achieving what you really aimed for.
Operative plan(in describing how an agent acts): The actual strategy or method you're using to achieve your goal; the core steps of what you're trying to do.
Warren Quinn(the philosopher being referenced): A 20th-century American philosopher who wrote influential work on ethics, particularly on the moral difference between actively harming someone versus passively allowing harm to happen.

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