consequentialism examples in everyday life

It follows the thought that actions can be judged entirely on the result of the act in question. Photo: Liz Fagoli, We cannot predict every outcome of an event. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education and holds a PhD in Education from ACU. But skill is not one thing. Hooker, B. But we need nice honest friends if we are to be effective doers of good in the long run. Researchers identify many criticisms of consequentialism, such as its lack of consideration for individual rights, reliance on calculation and prediction, and failure to consider certain values, such as justice or fairness. A real-life example of this would be someone who chooses to invest in stocks with higher potential returns, even though doing so has the potential to have unintended consequences on other investors or markets in general. An action that brings about more benefit than harm is good, while an action that causes more harm than benefit is not. For example, killing one person to save five others would be considered moral according to this theory because it would result in greater overall happiness than if no one was killed. If people can get where they are going more quickly, they will probably use the time they saved to do things that will add happiness to their lives or the lives of others. While the burglar only sought to benefit themselves, their robbery actually stopped the crime. For example, you may do something simply because you have promised or because it is required by law, without looking to the consequences. (There can also be a scalar version of this view and of the others introduced below.). 3 says that she has another desirethe desire that all her other desires be fulfilled as much as possible. 1. Reasonable Consequentialism says that for an action of mine to be right, I must actually come to a reasonable conclusion beforehand about the consequences. (Premise), An impartially sympathetic being who knows everyones desires would share everyones desires in proportion to their strength. For example, suppose there is a machine that tosses a fair coin with such precision that whenever you press the Toss button, the coin always comes up heads. (From 2), What objectively ought to happen is whatever would promote the greatest possible balance of satisfaction of the desires of all people. In other contexts, consequentialism may be the better approach. Hence another kind of theory has been suggested, which might or might not be regarded as a version of consequentialism. Consequentialism is the view that morality is all about producing the right kinds of overall consequences. Now in one sense your prescription was wrong, but in another sense it was morally right. 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. It has a moral sense and an objective sense. However, they are still important considerations when making moral decisions. And since we ought to do what is rationally justifiable, we ought to do whatever does the most good overall. That is why the position of the hand matters to me. In this article we will look at what act consequentialism is and whether it . Read more. Suppose I donate $100 to Malaria Aid, but it turns out this group aids malaria and I have funded an outbreak. Den Uyl, Douglas, & Machan, Tibor R. Recent Work on the Concept of Happiness., Firth, Roderick. However, in letting the missile launch, thousands of people will die. 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). But since many people regard it as not quite in the spirit of consequentialism and many of the issues surrounding Rule Consequentialism are unique to it, we shall say little more about it here. Some people will be punished perhaps unfairly, but in total, less people will break the law, so the harshness of the punishment is justified. Consequentialism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Rule Consequentialism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Consequentialism [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]. Consequentialism is usually taken to be different from deontology which emphasizes the type of action instead of its . Fiet, J. O. And it does not matter whether the happiness will happen today or next year. Rule consequentialism holds that rules should be written regarding their likely outcomes, not necessarily on their inherent good or bad nature. https://doi.org/10.1080/0731129x.2017.1345221, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/egoism/. For instance, obeying highway speed limits might cause some individuals to miss their destination on time. Simple forms of consequentialism say that the best action is the one that produces the largest total of happiness. Further, institutions that secure basic external equalities, or that aim to protect whoever is poorest and weakest, tend to give everyone more security. Obligation moral dilemmas. What is good is happinessand whatever promotes that. For another example, one important implication of an action I take may be that I (already) am a certain kind of person. For example, it sounds a bit odd to say that when you call someone a good person, you are calling her a desirable person. Now, rationality and objectivity are impartial; they do not favor one person over another. Perhaps these points are the basis of our sense of the importance of equality. Also, if you have important secrets, you may find it hard to have ordinary trust for others; you may become somewhat paranoid and ineffective. Ideal code, real world: A rule-consequentialist theory of morality. We feel we are obliged to carry out an action from a moral or legal standpoint. Philosophers express this with greater precision: An action is morally right if and only if it does not violate the set of rules of behaviour whose general acceptance in the community would have the best consequences--that is, at least as good as any rival set of rules or no rules at all. This moral theory deals with the rightness and wrongness of actions, which . Respect The Elders. Hence the consequences will probably be better. If you do not want to praise my conduct, you might prefer a new version of consequentialism: Reasonable Consequentialism: An action is morally right if and only if it has the best reasonably expected consequences. (Boxing makes me worse at the piano.) Foot (1967). One might suppose that if a person has two conflicting desires, it is rational for her to replace them with a single compromise desire. Hence it would be misleading to say that consequentialism is the view that morality is all about results. 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. It is relevant right across the piece. Therefore, it is important to account for the moral agent's community or communities within which she operates. The rules that should be adopted are the rules that would produce the best results if they were adopted by most people. For example, perhaps we can do the most good overall if we forcibly stop people from wasting their time and energy on pointless or harmful things like driving SUVs, watching television, eating meat, following sports, and so on. In other words, it means that the result or outcome of taking a certain course of action will determine whether or not it was morally sound. Consequentialism. In, Skorupski, John. A normative theory in moral philosophy, it became prominent after being put forth by the renowned philosopher, Immanuel Kant, in 1788. Theories like these that count the same kinds of consequence differently for each person acting, are sometimes called agent-relative forms of consequentialism, though one might wonder whether they are in the spirit of consequentialism at all. (1981). Common-sense morality and consequentialism. Obligation dilemmas are situations where we feel we are obliged to opt for more than one choice. To keep a big secret, you must actively mislead and deceive people and keep them at a distance. Whether an act is right or wrong depends only on the results of that act, The more good consequences an act produces, the better or more right that act, A person should choose the action that maximises good consequences, People should live so as to maximise good consequences. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. If the evil group was so cleverly deceptive that even the Better Business Bureaus web site said they do good work fighting malaria, then you may think the damage done by my money was not my fault. To practice one skill, one must neglect or even undermine another skill. Consequentialism has many forms, including utilitarianism, hedonism, rule consequentialism, and many more, each emphasizing how to maximize net benefits or minimize harm. Ethical egoism has no solutions to offer when a problem arises involving conflicts of interest. I simply assume that this group fights tuberculosis, and I do not look at the pamphlet because I do not care. Perhaps it does not involve explicitly thinking about the consequences at all. Perhaps an easier way to be free of bias is to have no sympathy for anyone. A poor man will value $1000 dollars. Campbell, Richmond, and Sowden, Lanning, eds. One might propose, for example, that an action is good insofar as it decreases the amount of meddling in the world. See Rawls (1955). [2] morecambe fc owners examples of moral decisions in everyday life. (From 4 and 5), Desiring something is the same thing as thinking that it will increase ones happiness or decrease ones unhappiness. Similarly, if a certain action would be good for me but bad for you, there is a reason for it and a reason against it. (Premise), It can never be right to choose a worse whole set of consequences over a better. Consequentialism has both practical and philosophical problems: And these are things that many think are relevant to ethical judgements. But if I desire something slightly and then intensely, which counts? Consequentialism says you should do this; but moral common sense says that you should not. (From 2 and 3), In choosing an action, one is choosing its whole set of consequences. The net outcome or consequence of this decision would be the time saved in taking the Uber, versus the cost and potential environmental impact of taking a car. An everyday example of act utilitarianism would be the following: Suppose that a person is given a book as a birthday present and when they are done reading it, a friend asks to borrow it.. Expectable Consequentialism: The morally right action is the action whose reasonably expectable consequences are best. Another worry is that 1 and 2 do not imply 3. Required fields are marked *, This Article was Last Expert Reviewed on April 3, 2023 by Chris Drew, PhD. A second worry is that premise (1) may not support statement (2). For the moment, Jill was an authority for Jack on whether these lumps were gold. Consequentialism is a broad school of ethical theory. We formed four focus groups containing 6-9 participants each. But you might think that whether my action was morally wrong depends on what consequences it would have been reasonable for me to expect, not on the actual consequences. One reason is that, in general, external goods tend to produce more happiness or well-being when they go to people who have less of these goods than when they go to people who have more. If every action is taken to produce some benefit, that shows only that the benefit is part of the reason for every action, not that the benefit is the whole reason. But the pill turns out to harm me, because I have a rare and previously unknown virus. Results: Five themes emerged from the qualitative analysis: (a) each child's individual experiences and quality of life; (b) linked to home, school, and community life; (c) child or youth. It is unclear, then, whether the standard to which we should hold theories of morality is that they must explain why morality is easy to know about or why morality is terribly hard to know about! Or suppose you are unhappy instead: on average just as unhappy as I am happy and for the same amount of time. Therefore consequentialism is an inhuman and immoral theory and must be wrong. She holds a Masters degree in International Business from Lviv National University and has more than 6 years of experience writing for different clients. I do not donate. In practice people don't assess the ethical consequences of every single act (that's called 'act consequentialism') because they don't have the time. For example, if someone commits a crime out of necessity rather than greed, their punishment may differ significantly from another criminal whose motivations were purely selfish and maliciously intended. Consequentialism is a theory that says whether something is good or bad depends on its outcomes. 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. 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. Consequentialism, as the name suggests, refers to a family of ethical theories which judge the morality of a given action based on its consequences. Consequentialism and its critics. All the advice on this site is general in nature. In consequentialism, the consequences of an action include (a) the action itself, and (b) everything the action causes. Two examples of consequentialism are utilitarianism and hedonism. Sen, Amartya, and Williams, Bernard, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3750884. An example here would be providing medical aid during wartime. But consequentialism is still controversial. Hence consequentialism is opposed to common sense and so is probably wrong. Perhaps, then, what counts as a good result is the amount of life that the action adds or subtracts in the world? According to Rule Consequentialism, the right thing for each person in the community near the river to do is to follow the rule, Throw garbage in the dump, not in the river. Even if nobody else is going to the dump, and your going to the dump causes only inconvenience and no benefit, Rule Consequentialism says to take your garbage to the dump because that is what the best set of community rules would require. Hence consequentialism is wrong. See Mill (1859). Good actions are the ones that produce the least harm. Another criticism of consequentialism is its reliance on calculation and prediction. Now, serious inequality in external goods tends to reduce the total happiness. examples of moral decisions in everyday life. Consequentialist vs. non-consequentialist theories of ethics There are two broad categories of ethical theories concerning the source of value: consequentialist and non-consequentialist. Yet there is not broad agreement on the abstract question, What is morality all about? Now, if you are the sort of person who actually would send money to save distant strangers, anything that cripples your efforts will hurt many people. Duty-based . Act consequentialism is the belief that we have to consider - you guessed it - the consequences of our actions. That this evaluation should focus on the overall good for society as a whole rather than on individual gains or losses. There are many different forms of consequentialism depending on how one values outcomes. "You are not acting your age." "That was unprofessional behavior.". Thus consequentialism seems to defeat its own purpose. Philosophy,56(218), 497516. people don't agree on what should be assessed in calculating good consequences. It suggests two distinct levels when assessing whether an action is morally permissible its immediate effects (rule) and long-term impact (state) (Goodman, 2017). Here the phrase overall consequences of an action means everything the action brings about, including the action itself. Another worry is that it is unclear exactly how 7 is supposed to imply 8. As Brad Hooker, the world's leading rule consequentialist, argues, rule consequentialism is not plausibly motivated by a consequentialist commitment to outcomes being as good as possible: the case for rule consequentialism is instead that it impartially justifies intuitively plausible moral rules. In choosing an action, one is normally not choosing its whole set of consequences, because one cannot know what most of the consequences are. See Firth (1952); Hare (1981), Seanor and Fotion (1988). Plain Consequentialism: Of all the things a person might do at any given moment, the morally right action is the one with the best overall consequences. In short, utilitarianism is consequentialist and welfarist. Utilitarianism theory (or universal hedonism) refers to an ethical theory that determines the morality of the actions of an individual based on their outcome. This article describes different versions of consequentialism. He may or may not find consequentialism plausible, but in any case he knows he does not have a solid theoretical understanding of rightness; so he reasonably decides to trust his communitys confident view and does not pursue the scheme. This makes life nicer and helps people be concerned for each other rather than fearful of each other, and they will therefore do more good for each other. Consequentialism is sometimes criticized because it can be difficult, or even impossible, to know what the result of an action will be ahead of time. 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. See Foot (1985); Scanlon (1998). Learn more about our academic and editorial standards. Now, Plain Consequentialism implies that what I did is morally wrong, and Plain Scalar Consequentialism implies that it is morally very bad. Not every version of consequentialism is anthropocentric, and as several contributors point out, some or all of the often very strong claims defended by non-anthropocentric thinkers can be expressed in a consequentialist framework. Many of our actions are aimed at developing a skil. (From 1 and 3), The right action is the one that objectively ought to happen. Now, 2 tells us that she is full of desires that conflict with each other. In virtue ethics, one's character emerges from a " relevant moral community". When your boss says she cares only about results, that commonly means she does not care whether your gamble had a 1% or a 99% chance of succeeding. Despite its flaws, consequentialism remains a valuable framework for ethical decision-making, especially when used in conjunction with other ethical theories and considerations. 3. it's hard to predict the future consequences of an act, in almost every case the most we can do is predict the probability of certain consequences following an act. (From 4 and 5), What objectively ought to happen, what is objectively desirable, is whatever would be wished for by a spectator with full knowledge and no bias; that is, someone who knows everything and is equally sympathetic with everyone. And if you are a skilled surgeon, anything that hampers your operations will hurt people. Look at any of the standard anti-consequentialist philosophical examples - trolley car, organ bank, . As mentioned above, in consequentialism the consequences of an action are everything the action brings about, including the action itself. Adams, Robert M. Motive Utilitarianism., Bales, R. Eugene. But Jill had handled gold a few times before and could make a good guess about whether the lumps were really gold. (From 1), What will satisfy each persons desire is her own happinessand whatever promotes that. (For more discussion of consequentialism, see the consequentialism section of the article Ethics.). For instance, according to this theory, choosing to donate money to charities without expecting anything back other than knowing you helped make someones life better would be considered an act of altruistic behavior. Utilitarianism is a theory of morality that advocates actions that foster happiness or pleasure and oppose actions that cause unhappiness or harm. See Williams (1973); Williams (1981); Stocker (1976). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Consequentialism. Web Privacy Policy William Haines . The philosophy also fails to consider certain values, such as justice or fairness, in determining the morality of an action. Now, this objection does not directly apply to Plain Consequentialism or Plain Scalar Consequentialism, for these theories do not say that we should think about consequences. Hence the reasonable expectation is that harvesting the healthy patient would have bad consequences. Many ethical issues are of this sort. It may be a benefit of a particular kind: a financial benefit, a heath benefit, entertainment or knowledge. Utilitarianism holds that the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number. This article was peer-reviewed and edited by Chris Drew (PhD). Why would the absence of bias mean being equally sympathetic with everyone?
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