Consequentialism

But consequentialism is the merciless mistress of foreign affairs. ❋ Unknown (2009)

I tend to think consequentialism is a false approach to ethics. ❋ Unknown (2008)

I actually think consequentialism is tied pretty closely to scientism. ❋ Unknown (2007)

Badhwar is here alluding to a case of Railton's in which, through no fault of yours or your friend's, the right action according to consequentialism is to sacrifice your friendship for the greater good. ❋ Helm, Bennett (2009)

On one view, known as consequentialism of rights, if the only way to ensure respect of a certain right of A and B is to infringe the same right of C, we shall be justified in doing so. ❋ Primoratz, Igor (2007)

Besides, anyone who wants to pick out a smaller set of moral theories that excludes this absurd theory may talk about evaluative consequentialism, which is the claim that moral rightness depends only on the value of the consequences. ❋ Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter (2006)

In the meantime, here PDF; hat-tip: Legal Theory Blog is a discussion of rule consequentialism, which is the form of utilitarianism that I think most obviously shows similarities to natural law. ❋ Unknown (2005)

It might appear rational for every government decision to be based upon an evaluation of its expected consequences - a rationale that is termed consequentialism - but that rationale is far from being the general rule. ❋ Unknown (2009)

For instance, Brink argues that the possibility of interpersonal continuity supports a kind of consequentialism via rational egoism. ❋ Shoemaker, David (2008)

Sometimes called "consequentialism," a term coined by the late Catholic philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe, utilitarianism's core idea is that the primary rule for judging actions is whether or not they maximize net utility in their consequences. ❋ Mike L (2006)

The ethic of utilitarianism, for example, which is nowadays more often called 'consequentialism' by philosophers, thanks to the late G.E.M. Anscombe tells us that there are no actions which are absolutely forbidden or required; our moral duty is to do either that thing, or that sort of thing, whose overall consequences would in fact constitute a more optimal combination of good and bad than those of the alternatives would. ❋ Mike L (2005)

Perhaps Bill Maher will get to this topic one of these days but this is a response to what Lang calls an important, forcefully argued article in which James Lenman "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 difficulty. ❋ Unknown (2009)

It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome. ref: en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarian ❋ Unknown (2010)