For example, welfare consequentialism, or welfarism, maintains that all that matters or is good is welfare, or well-being. For example, it's a bad thing for a man to rape and beat a woman (regardless of consequences), but it's even worse if as a result of the brutality, her unborn daughter is killed and the rape victim who survives gets AIDS. Hence consequentialism would seem to ask us to support laws that protect personal freedom against excessive interference by our neighbors or our government. Redistribution of Wealth It's no secret that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening as time passes. Ethics Defined (Glossary) View All 58 animated videos - 1 to 2 minutes each - define key ethics terms and concepts. It looks at scenarios where individuals actions are motivated by the desire to benefit others rather than themselves and places value in those acts regardless of their outcome or consequence (Scheffler, 2009). The Consequentialist Framework In the Consequentialist framework, we focus on the future effects of the possible courses of action, considering the people who will be directly or indirectly affected. If you decide by looking to the consequences, you are not really an honest person. Consequentialism is controversial. Violence and social justice. Friendly Consequentialism: Of all the things a person might do at any given moment, the morally right action is the one that has the best consequences for that person and her friends. A similar line of thought starts from the idea that morality is at bottom two things. Dual Consequentialism: The word right is ambiguous. To see the difference in principle between these theories, suppose there is a somewhat reliable authority on what specific kinds of actions are objectively right. Results-based ethics produces this important conclusion for ethical thinking: This far-fetched example may make things clearer: The classic form of results-based ethics is called utilitarianism. A second worry is that premise (1) may not support statement (2). For instance, obeying highway speed limits might cause some individuals to miss their destination on time. But if telling a lie would help save a persons life, consequentialism says its the right thing to do. by Jason Blakely December 02, 2020. Adams, Robert M. Motive Utilitarianism., Bales, R. Eugene. We formed four focus groups containing 6-9 participants each. Children, mothers, grandmothers and grandfathers are non-combatants. Utilitarianism judges consequences by a greatest good for the greatest number standard. Hence actions and policies that promote equality in external goods will cause more happiness by promoting a sense of community. following which will have the best consequences are the same as the non-consequentialist rules most of us apply in everyday life and in judging the hypothetical cases. Lying is considered wrong, even if it is to benefit or bring about better consequences. For if good consequences is meaningless, then it cannot be correct to define right action in terms of good consequences, as consequentialism normally does. Yet there is not broad agreement on the abstract question, What is morality all about? This ignores the way in which that happiness is shared out and so would seem to approve of acts that make most people happy, and a few people very unhappy, or that make a few people ecstatically happy and leave the majority at best neutral. Parental support is an important element in overweight prevention programs for children. 36 short illustrated videos explain behavioral ethics concepts and basic ethics principles. "Do not lie" is the most taught ethics by our parents, teachers, and everyone around. Or one might propose instead that an action is good insofar as it causes less meddling and more total happiness. It requires much time and knowledge, which many people do not possess. In addition, the fine journal Utilitas is entirely devoted to the topic. C. Morality and the Theory of Rational Behavior., Hart, H. L. A. People disagree with each other about the morality of using human embryos for stem cell research, downloading copyrighted music, giving little to the poor, eating animals, having certain kinds of sex, and many other things. Consequentialism says you should do this; but moral common sense says that you should not. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that asserts that right and wrong are best determined by focusing on outcomes of actions and choices. One key theory is consequentialism, which says that an individual's correct moral response is related to the outcome/ consequence of the act and not its intentions/ motives. V iewed from the outside, Catholicism's social teachings appear to be a perplexing gamut of unreasonably extreme positions lacking in any overall coherence. (From 5 and 6), 8. And if someone thinks of the people she knows that way, it seems a stretch to call her a loving or even a caring person. So consequentialism must be true. It may be a benefit of a particular kind: a financial benefit, a heath benefit, entertainment or knowledge. Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism because it rests on the idea that it is the consequences or results of actions, laws, policies, etc. About The Helpful Professor While the burglar only sought to benefit themselves, their robbery actually stopped the crime. A worry about the argument is that premise (5) may not be true. The right act is the act which maximises well-being. The usual Consequentialist view is that a 50% chance of a certain good outcome is half as good as that good outcome itself, and a 10% chance is one tenth as good. Moral common sense is shaped by and for the demands of ordinary moral life and so common sense may not be very reliable in odd cases. I do not donate. Hence consequentialism is wrong. Negative consequentialism is the inverse of ordinary consequentialism. One could produce more overall happiness in the world by doing charity work tomorrow than by watching television all day tomorrow. Note that if what matters is the total amount, then it does not matter whether the happiness belongs to you or your friend or a strangeror even a dog, if dogs can have happiness. So if your action does vastly more good than what most other people would do in similar circumstances, but you could have chosen an action that would have done even a little more, Plain Consequentialism says that what you did was morally wrong. Eventually you decide to toss the coin, you win, and I bake the cake. Deontological ethics suggest that you should always do the right thing, no matter what. Ethical egoism has no solutions to offer when a problem arises involving conflicts of interest. See Sen (1982), Nagel (1986), Scheffler (1994), Bennett (1989), Scheffler (1989), Brink (1986), and Skorupski (1995). For example, people often procrastinate from laziness or fear, knowing that they are hurting themselves in the long run. 6. Continued difficult deception uses up mental resources. This question has been posed to many years, and it is a classic example of consequentialism philosophy in action. The goal with this approach is to be a good person. Motive consequentialism looks at how an individuals motivations can shape the consequences associated with their actions (Slote, 2021). Now in one sense your prescription was wrong, but in another sense it was morally right. Simple forms of consequentialism say that the best action is the one that produces the largest total of happiness. William Haines Learn more about our academic and editorial standards. But common sense may rebel against that idea as being unfair or unjust. For all these reasons it would seem that even a consequentialism that impartially counts each persons happiness or well-being as being of equal value would advise each of us to be somewhat partial to herself and those near to her, because in that way she can produce the best impartial results. Back to Series Consequentialism might be used to argue that Mr X's human rights (and his and his family's happiness) should be ignored, in order to increase the overall amount of human well-being. All utilitarian theories share four key elements: consequentialism, welfarism, impartiality, and aggregationism. Another important point about consequences is that the actual consequences of an action, beyond the action itself, need not be actual outcomes. Then you will have had twice as much happiness as I had. Consider this argument for Plain Scalar Consequentialism, which is based on one proposed in Mill (1861): One worry about this argument is that 1 seems false. Here the phrase overall consequences of an action means everything the action brings about, including the action itself. Cognitive film and media ethics. Shaver, R. (2019, January 15). For example, it sounds a bit odd to say that when you call someone a good person, you are calling her a desirable person. Agent-Neutrality, Consequentialism, Utilitarianism: A Terminological Note., Smart, J. J. C., Free Will, Praise, and Blame,, Smart, J. J. C. An Outline of a System of Utilitarian Ethics. In, Stocker, Michael. Now, to find the goodness of the consequences of an action, simply take the total amount of happiness in those consequences. One could phrase consequentialism in general terms as, for example, the theory that there is some feature of consequences of actions such that the right action is the one whose consequences have that feature to the greatest degree.. Or suppose you are on average twice as happy as I am, and we live equally long. But we need nice honest friends if we are to be effective doers of good in the long run. The history of utilitarianism. Plain Scalar Consequentialism is different. Consequentialism may ask us to meddle too much into other peoples business. Consequentialism is a theory of normative ethics that states that the moral value of an action or decision should be judged based on its consequences. A Plague of Catholic Cafeteria Consequentialism. For example, in the first chapter the only real action as when she got picked up on the bus. Still, it will help reduce car accidents, potentially saving many lives. Rule consequentialism holds that rules should be written regarding their likely outcomes, not necessarily on their inherent good or bad nature. The right act is the act which maximizes well-being. This course of action is justified only if their actions can be proven to be a threat to society, regardless of their intentions or potential benefits. New York: Routledge. Rule Consequentialism in one or another form has received a great deal of discussion. International systems of communication began with mail services that were impressively global by the late 19th century. (From 1 and 2), An action is good insofar as its consequences include the satisfaction of desire. He says that if he is given the next suitable organ he will fund 1000 hip-replacements a year for 10 years. Your email address will not be published. (Premise), One ought always to choose an action whose overall consequences are at least as good as the overall consequences of any of the alternative actions; in other words, consequentialism is true. Choosing different time periods may produce different consequences, for example, using cheap energy may produce good short-term economic results, but in the long-term it may produce bad results for global climate, choosing different groups of people may produce different consequences, an act that produces a good result for group X may at the same time produce a bad result for group Y, or for society in general, so the ethical choices people make are likely to be different according to which group they use for their moral calculations, the most common solution to this problem is to look at the consequences for a large group such as 'society in general', alternatively, ethicists can try to look at things from the standpoint of an 'ideal', fully informed and totally neutral observer, results-based ethics is only interested in the consequences of an act, the intentions of the person doing the act are irrelevant, so an act with good results done by someone who intended harm is as good as if it was done by someone who intended to do good, the past actions of the person doing the act are irrelevant, the character of the person doing the act is irrelevant, the fairness of the consequences are not directly relevant. It may be a short-run benefit or a long-run benefit. The moral philosophy behind deontological ethics suggests that each person has a duty to always do the right thing. This form of consequentialism suggests that following established rules, even when they may lead to negative outcomes, will produce more desirable results in the long run than acting without any rules at all (Hooker, 2002). Similarly, there are no general standards of goodness for whole sets of consequences in genera. 1. It is often used as a moral tool for decision-making and emphasizes the importance of consequences to determine the morality of an action (Driver, 2014). Here too you end up having had twice as much happiness as I had, so the total happiness we had is three times the happiness I had. A consequentialist theory of value judges the rightness or wrongness of an action based on the consequences that action has. Eight short videos present the 7 principles of values-driven leadership from Gentile's Giving Voice to Values. Today, consequentialism has many different forms developed over the years. "You are not acting your age." "That was unprofessional behavior.". For example, if a certain action would be good for the bank account but bad for the health, there is a financial reason for it and a health reason against it. Another reply to the extreme examples is to point out that although they rely on secrecy, they overlook secrecys consequential drawbacks. Hence if you have such a secret, your further projects will be more poorly chosen, designed, and carried out. The implication is that the rest of them are wrong. For one thing, consequentialism holds that actions do matter, because they are among their own consequences. This makes the crime much, much worse. Indeed, no one can know the future with certainty. State consequentialism looks at how government laws and policies can affect citizens lives positively or negatively, depending on their outcome (Scheffler, 2009). An action that brings about more benefit than harm is good, while an action that causes more harm than benefit is not. While there are many varieties of consequentialism, their common thread is that, as the name suggests, normative evaluation of particular actions or rules depends on an analysis of consequences alone. For another example, one important implication of an action I take may be that I (already) am a certain kind of person. For consequentialism, the simplest way to conceive of the goodness of consequences is in terms of how much they contain of something that is considered good, such as happiness or personal well-being, regardless of who gets it. Oxford: Oxford University Press. One worry about the above argument is that it is not clear why we should think Premise 1 is true. Consequentialism is usually taken to be different from deontology which emphasizes the type of action instead of its . Therefore consequentialism is an inhuman and immoral theory and must be wrong. So, an action may be deemed morally right even if it harms certain individuals or violates their rights as long as the overall outcome is beneficial. So also are community religious leaders, community doctors, bakers, shoe-sales people, and the like. (From 2), What objectively ought to happen is whatever would promote the greatest possible balance of satisfaction of the desires of all people. To find out whether the action is rationally justifiable overall, one must look beyond these specific kinds of reason to find what overall reason there is. protracted and demanding reflection: don't kill, don't steal, be honest, etc; these enable us to act efficiently in everyday life. In other words, in the end, the outcome always justifies the means. Suppose you are on average just as happy as I am, but you live twice as long. For if we can minimize the total amount of meddling in the long run by meddling today (perhaps by spying on terrorism suspects or by privately bombing the citizens of aggressive countries), this new theory tells us to do so. That is a reason to think that promoting equality in external goods will tend to do more total good than promoting inequality. Bufacchi, V. (2009). Why would the absence of bias mean being equally sympathetic with everyone? 10 Of course, once one introduces such a complex standard of goodness for consequences, questions arise about how to rate the relative importance of the parts of the standard and about how such a view can be given theoretical elegance. Consequentialism: The view that one ought to act in a way that promotes good outcomes. Consequentialism states that an actions moral value is determined by its consequences. Another worry is that it is obscure whether there is anything sensible that might be meant by a greater or lesser amount of satisfaction of desire. Are all desires to count or only those that exist at the time of the action or the decision (even if they disappear before most of the consequences arrive)? And since your dollar can usually do more good for desperate refugees than for yourself or your friends, consequentialism seems to hold that you ought to spend most of your dollars on strangers. Consequentialism is based on two principles: It gives us this guidance when faced with a moral dilemma: And it gives this general guidance on how to live: Different forms of consequentialism differ over what the good thing is that should be maximised. And since we ought to do what is rationally justifiable, we ought to do whatever does the most good overall. The rights and wrongs of consequentialism. Another worry is that 1 and 2 do not imply 3. Common-sense morality and consequentialism. Ideal code, real world: A rule-consequentialist theory of morality. This article describes different versions of consequentialism. See Bales (1971), Railton (1994). Hence another kind of theory has been suggested, which might or might not be regarded as a version of consequentialism. From utilitarianism and hedonism to egoism and act consequentialism, each form seeks to maximize the net benefits or minimize the harm caused by a decision or action. And if you are a skilled surgeon, anything that hampers your operations will hurt people. That assumption may be mistaken, because it is not true that an authority on whether something has a certain feature has to know exactly what that feature is. An approach of 'rule consequentialism' may support an insistence on inviolability of human rights in individual decision-cases, but will combine that with trying to design systems of rules that. For one thing, 1 and 2 do not tell us that the ideal spectator would have no concerns other than those she derives from sympathy, but 3 does make that assumption. Act consequentialism is a moral theory that tells us the morally right action is always the one that will produce the best overall outcome in the world. Do Not Lie. If you decide by looking to the overall consequences, you do not really love that person. Consequentialism seems to tell us to make all our decisions by thinking about overall consequences. Arguably consequentialism is implicit in the very familiar conception of morality, shared by many cultures and traditions, which holds that moral perfection means loving all people, loving others as we love ourselves. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. So you may prefer a different version of consequentialism. You cannot know all that before you act (or after). A documentary and six short videos reveal the behavioral ethics biases in super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's story. Why would two-level consequentialists punish only the guilty? See Frey (1984). The objection does, however, directly attack Reasonable Consequentialism and Dual Consequentialism, because these theories say that an action is morally wrong unless we have a reasonable estimate of its consequences. Such a situation has been seen in cases where governments have implemented policies with negative consequences for some people to benefit society. Negative consequentialists focus exclusively on avoiding unfavorable outcomes when evaluating decisions or behaviors (Scheffler, 2009). examples of moral decisions in everyday life. It was reasonable for him to rely on her imperfect judgment, even though neither of them knew quite what gold is. It emphasizes the importance of outcomes in determining the morality of an action rather than relying on predetermined moral principles or personal beliefs. Perhaps, then, what counts as a good result is the amount of life that the action adds or subtracts in the world? (2002). It is also egalitarian in that it takes everyone's welfare into account. Therefore, it is important to account for the moral agent's community or communities within which she operates. It is in the spirit of consequentialism to look at goodness ultimately from an impartial, impersonal point of view. Consequentialism can still tell you to give me resources or opportunities, or to help me with my projects, or to help improve the laws of our community. Utilitarianism Meaning. Reasonable estimates of consequences seem to involve a different kind of probability from that discussed in 1.b above. 3. Perhaps most consequences of most actions we decide on are like that: not actual outcomes, but only probabilities of outcomes.

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