R.L. Holmes
CONSEQUENTIALISM
1. Consequentialism is component of a normative ethical theory, specifically
a theory of right or obligation. Most simply, it can be defined as follows:
Consequentialism: the view that rightness and wrongness are determined solely
by the consequences of actions.
Left open is what it is about consequences that determines rightness and wrongness.
The most common view is that it is their value (goodness or badness). But other
alternatives are that it is (a) the number of rights respected, or (b) the amount
of wrongdoing prevented. We shall limit our concern to utilitarianism based
upon value.
2. Utilitarianism and Ethical Egoism are prototypical consequentialist theories,
differing in their conceptions of the scope of the relevant consequences, e.g.,
for people generally (utilitarianism) or for oneself only (Ethical Egosim).
3. There are many varieties of utilitarianism, most notably
a.Act Utilitarianism: The rightness of individual acts is determined by the
balance of good over evil produced by those individual acts.
b.Rule Utilitarianism: The rightness of individual acts is determined by whether
or not they accord with relevantly specified rules, whose justification in turn
is based upon utilitarian considerations. The main candidates for rules are
(i) The conventional rules of society (Conventional rule utilitarianism).
(ii) Those rules (whether or not generally accepted or recognized) that would
have best consequences if they were followed (Ideal Rule Utilitarianism).
4. To specify utilitarianism fully, one needs to attach to it a theory of value.
The classical view of Bentham and Mill was hedonistic: that pleasure, and pleasure
alone, is intrinsically good. Hence that, in determining rightness, we must
look to the balance of pleasure over pain produced by acts. Others, however,
have held pluralistic theories of value, usually holding that pleasure is intrinsically
good, but that other things (such as virtue or knowledge) are intrinsically
good as well.
Readings: S. Scheffler, Consequentialism and its Critics (Oxford).
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