Consequentialist moral theories and nonhuman animals share a long and complicated history. The simplest form of consequentialism is classical or hedonistic utilitarianism, which asserts that an action is right or wrong according to whether it maximizes the net. However, for the rest of this article, i will ignore this complication. And they disagree on whether there is just one ranking of outcomes that is the same for all agents agent. But, as the above also makes clear, whether or not consequentialism is true has very concrete consequences.
James lenman argues that consequentialism fails as a moral theory because it is impossible to predict the longterm consequences of our actions. Combining deontology and consequentialism is there a name for arguments that combine deontology and consequentialism as i often see done, particularly by the social justice movement. Consequentialism teaches that the act itself, the motivation for the act, and the relevant rules regarding the act have little to no bearing on whether the act is moral. Where actconsequentialism assesses acts in terms of their consequences, global consequentialism goes much further, assessing acts, rules. But it may stray too far from the spirit of consequentialism consider again my example of the reasons for giving to famine relief, which dont seem to depend on whether the famine was caused by another agent corrupt govt or by, say, drought.
Instead, i argue that we should turn to the theory of global consequentialism which explicitly judges decision procedures along with everything else in terms of their. Consequentialism is thought to be in significant conflict with animal rights theory because it. Cluelessness general guide to personal and societies web. An argument for consequentialism 401 principle along these lines must be accepted in order to explain why the above argument is valid. I distinguish the argument from cluelessness from traditional epistemic objections to consequentialism. The most powerful version of the classic epistemic argument against consequentialism is stated in an article by james lenman. Consequentialism and decision procedures a mirror clear. The best argument for ruleconsequentialism is that it does a better job than its rivals of matching and tying together our moral convictions, as well as offering us help with our moral disagreements and uncertainties. Morality, is an ambitious, painstaking effort to render the moral requirements of conse.
His recent published work includes michael smith and the daleks. University of kansas 1445 jayhawk boulevard wescoe hall. Although the term consequentialism is a recent coinage it appears to have first been used in its present sense by anscombe it refers to a type of theory which has a long history. Consequentialism, cluelessness, and indifference introduction in an important and forcefully argued article, james lenman has claimed that consequentialism, which is the view that the rightness or wrongness of an act is determined by its total overall consequences, is exposed to a crippling di. Consequentialism, cluelessness, and indifference springerlink. Ruleconsequentialism manifestly has the capacity to recommend change. Consequentialism, as its name suggests, is simply the view that normative properties depend only on consequences. Suppose i get another cavity, and two dentists are equally good and available. This historically important and still popular theory embodies the basic intuition that what is best or right is whatever makes the world best in the future, because we cannot change the past, so worrying about the past is no more useful than crying over spilled milk. Consequentialism, in ethics, the doctrine that actions should be judged right or wrong on the basis of their consequences. As the above makes clear, there are many different versions of consequentialism. In this thesis, i take this consequentialist reply and examine it more closely. Consequentialism and cluelessness, philosophy and public affairs, 29. Consequentialism and cluelessness, philosophy and public.
Douglas portmores recent book, commonsense consequentialism. A discipline used to explore the rightness or wrongness of business activities besr, lesson 2 business ethics traditional ethical theories consequentialism deontological ethics moral rights ethics of care virtue ethics topicoverview foundation of business ethics. Lenman cluelessness james lenman consequentialism and. This is a final research thesis in the study of ethics of leadership in a global atmosphere.
Consequentialism does not demand a sharp distinction between acts or whatever else is taken to be the primary subject of moral evaluation and consequences. Cluelessness objection revisited proceedings of the. If that were so, one would just go on for ever, and there would be an obviously hopeless regress. Consequentialism, metaphysical realism and the argument. In his latest work, harris controversially argues that clinicians should stop prioritising patients according to prognosis. Actual utility, the objection from impracticality, and the move to. University of kansas 1445 jayhawk boulevard wescoe hall, rm. Chapter 2 consequentialist theories of morality general overview the objective of this chapter is to introduce students to one of the broad and most important group of theories in. However, the introduction goes on to treat consequentialism as involving the production of optimal consequences and the possibility of consequentialist moral satisficing is never mentioned. But it does not favor change for the sake of change. Consequentialism and cluelessness consequentialism and.
Consequentialism looks at the end result of the action. Ruleconsequentialism most definitely does need to be formulated so as to deal with ties in expected value. The legitimacy of embryo research, use, and destruction is among the most important issues facing contemporary bioethics. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. The view that the value of an action derives solely from the value of its consequences. Ethics handout 14 notes on lenman, consequentialism. The argument is action x has consequence y and consequence y is principally unjust. In the preceding paper, ingmar persson and julian savulescu took up an argument of john harris and tried to find some new ways of avoiding its dramatic consequences. I first show that actconsequentialism does not have sufficient resources to answer this question and why ruleconsequentialism fails to provide a promising alternative.
To begin with, we develop an abstract framework in which the primitive of our analysis is a preference ordering held by an evaluator over the pairs of culmination outcomes and opportunity sets from which those culmination outcomes are chosen. Consequentialism and utilitarianism are linked by both using the outcome of an action to determine the best way to achieve the desired outcome. Aggregative consequentialism and several other popular moral theories are. Answer whether an act is right or wrong depends only on the results of that act answer the more good consequences an act produces, the better or more right that. Consequentialism and deontology bibliography philpapers.
Consequentialism builds on what may seem to be the merest truism, namely that morality is concerned with making the world a better place for all. Corresponding to each of these views about what makes one outcome better than another is a different version of consequentialism. Consequentialism and nonconsequentialism consequentialism. Consequentialism routledge encyclopedia of philosophy. A critique of consequentialism jared rudolph consequentialist ethical theories have been an essential part of ethical, political, and legal reasoning since before jeremy bentham advanced the theory of utilitarianism. Introduction shelly kagan in normative ethics said.
This means that you will never be ab solutely certain as. Consequentialism and constraints consequentialist theories have two elements. In looking at standard collections of recent higherquality essays from the research literature, such as those contained in the aforementioned consequentialism and its critics, or philip pettits 1993 edited volume of 26 papers, it seems to me that all of them either implicitly or explicitly assume that consequentialism ultimately countenances. Over the past 10 years, john harris has made important contributions to thinking about distributive justice in health care. Indeed, it will never be possible to say for sure that any given act was right or wrong, since any event can continue to. Consequentialism definition of consequentialism by the. The structure of consequentialism no one can hold that everything, of whatever category, that has value, has it in virtue of its consequences. Consequentialism an action is the right thing to do in certain circumstances if, of all the actions available in those circumstances, it would produce the best outcome.
Lenmans \argument from cluelessness claims that a signi cant percentage of the con. Perhaps the most common objection to consequentialism is this. Consequentialism, metaphysical realism, and the argument from clueless ness. Consequentialism, cluelessness, and indifference, the. Consequentialism is a focal point of discussion and a driving force behind important developments in moral philosophy.
In one clear sentence, state what you regard as williams criticism of utilitarianism. Consequentialism is one very general framework about how to think about what we ought to do. Section 1 builds an initial case for the thesis that nonconsequentialist utilitarianism is not a contradiction in terms. It means any ethical theory which judges the rightness or wrongness of an action on whether or not the. Download citation on jan 11, 2005, james lenman and others published consequentialism and cluelessness find, read and cite all the research you. Pdf consequentialist theory a discussion of ethical. Lenmans argument from cluelessness against consequentialism is that a significant percentage of the consequences of our actions are wholly unknowable, so that when it comes to assessing the moral quality of our actions, we are without a clue. Ethics handout 14 notes on lenman, consequentialism and. Criticisms of consequentialism 916 and 918 criticisms of. The motivation for adopting satisficing consequentialism it is often thought that by adopting satisficing consequentialism we can bring. Where they differ is consequentialism is based on the self and utilitarianism is based on what is best for everybody.
Criticisms of consequentialism 916 and 918 ethics 1 criticisms of consequentialism key concepts moral rules and moral rights justice as one part of morality morally relevant difference between acts and omissions intuition and reflective equilibrium testing whether an argument withstands criticism you should know. Consequentialism says that right or wrong depend on the consequences of an act, and that the more good consequences are produced, the better the act. James lenman is a lecturer in philosophy at the university of glasgow. Actconsequentialism is the view that an action is right if and only if it maximizes the good for the greatest number of people.