EL4

• Consequentialism

  - Normative focus: consequences/outcomes

  - Definition of good: acting to promote best outcomes
• Virtue Ethics

  • Normative focus: agents; individual well-being
  • Definition of good: flourishing/eudaimonia
• Consequentialism

  • Consequences of an action are the ones that ultimately matter in judging whether the action is morally good or bad.
  • Morality of an action is solely determined by the kind of consequences that the performance of the action leads to.
  • No actions are good or bad in themselves. It is the outcome of what we do to other people that matters.
  • Consequences are morally relevant if it involves an intrinsic good.
• Intrinsic Good

  • Inherent or unconditional good
  • Any good that is good in itself or desirable for its own sake.
• Instrumental Good

  • Derived or conditional good
  • Kind of good that is desired for the sake of something else because they serve as means to achieve happiness.
• Hedonistic Consequentialism – pleasure is the only intrinsic good.
• Non-hedonistic Consequentialism – pleasure is not the only intrinsic good there is.
• Agent-relative Consequentialism – the only consequences that morally matter are the agent-related ones.
• Agent-neutral Consequentialism – both agent-related and non-agent-related consequences morally matter.