consequentialism examples in everyday life

Famine, Affluence, and Morality., Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter. That is why the position of the hand matters to me. (At least that is true of the surgery example.) It is often used as a moral tool for decision-making and emphasizes the importance of consequences to determine the morality of an action (Driver, 2014). According to act utilitarianism, then, the right thing to do tomorrow is to go out and do charity work; it is wrong to stay home and watch television all day. The Consequentialist Perspective. In, Railton, Peter. As I proceed to feed my cat, I almost never think about the consequences of doing so versus not doing so, but surely it would be wrong to say that I have no view or that my view is not reasonable. However, in support of consequentialism it might be argued that many of the things listed above do influence the good or bad consequences of an act, particularly when formulating ethical rules, and so they become incorporated in consequentialist ethical thinking; but only through the back door, not directly. Then you will have had twice as much happiness as I had. (For more discussion of consequentialism, see the consequentialism section of the article Ethics.). For example, if you think that the whole point of morality is (a) to spread happiness and relieve suffering, or (b) to create as much freedom as possible in the world, or (c) to promote the survival of our species, then you accept consequentialism. 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. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. (There can also be a scalar version of this view and of the others introduced below.). 1. Reviewers ensure all content reflects expert academic consensus and is backed up with reference to academic studies. All articles are edited by a PhD level academic. Generated with Avocode.Watch the Next Video Corporate Social Responsibility. It follows the thought that actions can be judged entirely on the result of the act in question. A shorter cousin of the above argument, focusing on the fulfillment of desire rather than on happiness, avoids those worries. (From 3). China, Expectable Consequentialism and Reasonable Consequentialism, Two Simple Arguments for Consequentialism, It is Wrong to Choose the Worse Over the Better, The whole of an actions consequences has no further consequences. The utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham is a well known example of consequentialism. We ask about what outcomes are desirable in a given situation, and consider ethical conduct to be whatever will achieve the best consequences. 3. 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. 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. Your email address will not be published. An action can show what kind of person I am even if it does not make me be that kind of person. Here are three examples of consequentialism ethics playing out in three very different areas: Baby Hitler If you could go back in time and kill Hitler as a baby, would you do it? Anyone who stops to calculate consequences before taking any step to fulfill a commitment is not a person of integrity. If you happen to be in charge of setting speed limits, you might be thinking that a bad result is a death: the fewer deaths, the better. Expectable Consequentialism says that an action can be right even if I do not think reasonably about it at all, so long as it is the action I would have estimated to have the best consequences if I had done a reasonable job of making an estimate. It is the only moral framework that can be used to justify military force or war. 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. "For example, you can hold the door open for someone, pick up trash that you see on. One worry about these arguments is that if it happens that the most efficient way for you to help people is to send as much money as possible to help desperately poor people you do not know, then your following consequentialism may involve thinking of the people you know mainly as potential sources of money. Having life is something that provides value to people. In short, utilitarianism is consequentialist and welfarist. Perhaps the most standard precise version of consequentialism is Plain Consequentialism. Consequentialism does not itself say what kinds of consequences are good. Consequentialism has both practical and philosophical problems: And these are things that many think are relevant to ethical judgements. Should it count if it is based on a factual mistake or if it is malicious? Plain Scalar Consequentialism is different. (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. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/egoism/. One might propose, for example, that the consequences of an action are good insofar as they promote the total happiness and promote equality of happiness or of other goods. Another criticism of consequentialism is its reliance on calculation and prediction. See Smart (1961). In other words, ethical judgments should be based on the outcome or consequence of a particular course of action rather than on ones intentions or beliefs. For example, suppose God, who knows all the consequences, has announced that certain kinds of things are right. how do you measure any 'subjective' quality? Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism because it rests on the idea that it is the consequences or results of actions, laws, policies, etc. 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. Utilitarianism suggests that the only item of intrinsic worth is happiness, but there are also other commodities that are worth considering. While the burglar only sought to benefit themselves, their robbery actually stopped the crime. 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. Why would she have that additional desire? It teaches: Rule consequentialism bases moral rules on their consequences. Rule Consequentialism suggests that we should evaluate rules of behavior by asking what the consequences would be if everyone accepted this or that rule, but does not say that the rightness of actions has anything to do with the consequences of those actions themselves. But Expectable Consequentialism has a strange implication. Hence consequentialism is opposed to common sense and is probably wrong. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. Anyone who does not know your secret will not really know you and hence cannot be your real friend. Consequentialism and Criminal Justice Practice. Further, your ability to think well and act effectively depends in many ways on your having strong relationships with a few people near to you, so that your spending a bit of time or money on these people not only gives them directly a bit of help or happiness, it also indirectly supports all your other projects now and in the future. And since we ought to do what is rationally justifiable, we ought to do whatever does the most good overall. Jack had no idea how to identify gold. See Sidgwick (1907). Why would the absence of bias mean being equally sympathetic with everyone? It is argued that consequentialism relies heavily on calculation and prediction, which can be time-consuming and difficult. Arguably it was not. For one thing, 1 and 2 do not tell us that the ideal spectator would have no concerns other than those she derives from sympathy, but 3 does make that assumption. The right act is the act which maximises well-being. Suppose that by killing X, an entirely innocent person, we can save the lives of 10 other innocent people, A consequentialist would say that killing X is justified because it would result in only 1 person dying, rather than 10 people dying, It seems sensible to base ethics on producing happiness and reducing unhappiness, It seems sensible to base ethics on the consequences of what we do, since we usually take decisions about what to do by considering what results will be produced. These are examples of assigning social roles throughout our interactions in different areas. A Relatively Plausible Principle of Beneficence: Reply to Mulgan., Norcross, Alastair. Duty-based . The pros and cons of consequentialism. For not all implications are consequences. Choosing different time periods may produce different consequences, for example, using cheap energy may produce good short-term economic results, but in the long-term it may produce bad results for global climate, choosing different groups of people may produce different consequences, an act that produces a good result for group X may at the same time produce a bad result for group Y, or for society in general, so the ethical choices people make are likely to be different according to which group they use for their moral calculations, the most common solution to this problem is to look at the consequences for a large group such as 'society in general', alternatively, ethicists can try to look at things from the standpoint of an 'ideal', fully informed and totally neutral observer, results-based ethics is only interested in the consequences of an act, the intentions of the person doing the act are irrelevant, so an act with good results done by someone who intended harm is as good as if it was done by someone who intended to do good, the past actions of the person doing the act are irrelevant, the character of the person doing the act is irrelevant, the fairness of the consequences are not directly relevant. Nor does the objection apply to Rule Consequentialism. But if the spectator replaces her conflicting desires, then according to 2 she no longer has the sympathy that makes her a reliable judge. Further, if you have a big secret that would repel nice honest people, any nice honest person who learns your secret will not want to be your friend. And since your dollar can usually do more good for desperate refugees than for yourself or your friends, consequentialism seems to hold that you ought to spend most of your dollars on strangers. 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. or a consequentialist approach on which they should cognize in the most value-promoting ways (Thorstad, forthcoming c). A Plague of Catholic Cafeteria Consequentialism. People disagree with each other about the morality of using human embryos for stem cell research, downloading copyrighted music, giving little to the poor, eating animals, having certain kinds of sex, and many other things. Reasonable Consequentialism may be too simple. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3750884. Triage rules are potentially justified by a form of rule utilitarianism that enables rapid intuitive decisions. BBC 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Even though a whole set of consequences has no further consequences, it might have further implications. In Section 3 we shall discuss reasons to think consequentialism is false and some worries about those reasons. 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. (From 1 and 2), An action is good insofar as its consequences include the satisfaction of desire. Rule consequentialism holds that rules should be written regarding their likely outcomes, not necessarily on their inherent good or bad nature. Results-based ethics plays a very large part in everyday life because it is simple and appeals to common sense: Act consequentialism looks at every single moral choice anew. Perhaps it does not involve explicitly thinking about the consequences at all. (Premise), An action is good insofar as it helps to satisfy desire. Even in mathematics, crossing the same thing out of both sides of a true equation does not always yield a new true equation. Or suppose you are on average twice as happy as I am, and we live equally long. Consequentialism is one of three thories of normative ethics, alongside virtue ethics and deontology. Hence consequentialism is opposed to common sense and so is probably wrong. Finally, some argue that consequentialism fails to consider certain values, such as justice or fairness when determining the morality of an action (Stubbs, 1981). (Premise), It can never be right to choose a worse whole set of consequences over a better. Why would two-level consequentialists punish only the guilty? Another worry is that it is obscure whether there is anything sensible that might be meant by a greater or lesser amount of satisfaction of desire. Are all desires to count or only those that exist at the time of the action or the decision (even if they disappear before most of the consequences arrive)? The fact that we do not know the overall consequences of our actions makes room for further versions of consequentialism. But whatever a person does, she does in order to produce some sort of benefit. Look at any of the standard anti-consequentialist philosophical examples - trolley car, organ bank, . Such a conception is egalitarian in the sense that it counts every bit of your happiness as being just as important as the same sized bits of my happiness. A more general reply to the claim that consequentialism advises us to meddle in other peoples business is that even where secrecy would not be involved, there are Consequentialist reasons for you to avoid direct meddling with others private spheres and personal affairs. When you press Toss, your action will have heads as a consequence, but you do not know that. This ignores the way in which that happiness is shared out and so would seem to approve of acts that make most people happy, and a few people very unhappy, or that make a few people ecstatically happy and leave the majority at best neutral. A worry about the argument is that premise (5) may not be true. Your focus must be on the actions taken instead of the results achieved. following which will have the best consequences are the same as the non-consequentialist rules most of us apply in everyday life and in judging the hypothetical cases. 3 The version most relevant to law, rule consequentialism, evaluates legal rules solely based on their consequences.Legal rules, on this view, may (or must) go into effect if and only if . It is a familiar truth of everyday life that greater wealth for an individual is no guarantee of greater . But when you are deciding whom to spend your money on, common sense seems to hold that you are normally morally permitted to favor yourself over strangers and often morally required to favor your children over strangers. Hence consequentialism conflicts with common sense. Was the cake a consequence of your action of tossing the coin? A person should choose the act that does the least amount of harm to the greatest number of people. Viktoriya Sus (MA) and Peer Reviewed by Chris Drew (PhD), Machiavellianism: 10 Examples and Definition, Latent Inhibition: 10 Examples and Definition, Belief Perseverance: 10 Examples and Definition (Psychology), Transhumanism: 10 Examples and Definition. 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. 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). 10 For another example, suppose you are a surgeon with five patients, each about to die for lack of a certain medicine that you can obtain (in sufficient quantity) only by killing and grinding up a sixth patient. Hedonism is a form of consequentialism that approves of actions that produce pleasure and avoid pain. 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. To determine whether an action will produce the best overall outcome, one must consider all possible outcomes and weigh them against each other (Bufacchi, 2009). And if you are a skilled surgeon, anything that hampers your operations will hurt people. So, for example, according to rule consequentialism we consider lying to be wrong because we know that in general lying produces bad consequences. Suppose I donate $100 to Malaria Aid, but it turns out this group aids malaria and I have funded an outbreak. So far as he can reasonably guess, that scheme would have the best overall consequences. What then, do these two kinds of consequence have in common, that makes them both consequences? people don't agree on what should be assessed in calculating good consequences. Copyright 2023 Helpful Professor. If we try to produce the greatest total benefit, then we are loving all people in the sense that we are being impartial, caring for people in general, promoting each persons well-being insofar as that is at stake in our actions and insofar as our helping one does not hurt others more. Obligation moral dilemmas. 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. While it may violate certain international humanitarian laws due to immediate risks associated with these activities (rule level), they ultimately benefit humanity if peace can be brought about (state level). Rather, fairness is traditionally concerned with distributions of what we might call external goods goods such as money, status, power, and political rights. The moral philosophy behind deontological ethics suggests that each person has a duty to always do the right thing. Moral common sense is shaped by and for the demands of ordinary moral life and so common sense may not be very reliable in odd cases. Hence consequentialism is wrong. Hooker, Brad; Mason, Elinor; and Miller, Dale E. Jackson, Frank. Another worry is that 1 and 2 do not imply 3. It may be the prevention of some harm. Although the next chapter was intriguing and urged me to read on. 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. Consequentialism says you should do this; but moral common sense says that you should not. For example, people often procrastinate from laziness or fear, knowing that they are hurting themselves in the long run. One argument for consequentialism begins from the premise that whatever a person does, she does in order to produce some sort of good result. In this article we will look at what act consequentialism is and whether it . 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. If you cross out +2 from both sides of 10+2 = 3(2+2), you change a truth to a falsehood. Utilitarianism Meaning. Rule Consequentialism: An action is morally right if and only if it does not violate the set of rules of behavior whose general acceptance in the community would have the best consequencesthat is, at least as good as any rival set of rules or no rules at all. So also are community religious leaders, community doctors, bakers, shoe-sales people, and the like. Individuals are put in a position to make a choice between one life vs. multiple lives. It may be a benefit of a particular kind: a financial benefit, a heath benefit, entertainment or knowledge. Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition,151(3), 393412. An example of consequentialism is the utilitarian theory. The criticisms of consequentialism raise a number of fundamental questions that are important in ascertaining the relationship with criminal law and justice practice. Or suppose you are unhappy instead: on average just as unhappy as I am happy and for the same amount of time. Consequentialism has many forms, including utilitarianism, hedonism, rule consequentialism, and many more, each emphasizing how to maximize net benefits or minimize harm. Utilitarianism theory (or universal hedonism) refers to an ethical theory that determines the morality of the actions of an individual based on their outcome. List of the Disadvantages of Utilitarianism. (From 8), Plain Scalar Consequentialism is true. You might want to say that I fortunately did the right thing, but that my action was morally wrong. (From 1), It can never be right to choose something worse over something better, when nothing else is at stake. This says that the ethically right choice in a given situation is the one that produces the most happiness and the least unhappiness for the largest number of people. Adams, Robert M. Motive Utilitarianism., Bales, R. Eugene. Similarly, there are no general standards of goodness for whole sets of consequences in genera. Actions are transient things, soon gone forever. Another reason is that when there is more equality in the main external goods, the basic conditions of peoples lives will be more similar and people will find it easier to understand and sympathize with each other. 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. In consequentialism, the consequences of an action include (a) the action itself, and (b) everything the action causes. (Premise), When we are choosing among such wholes, nothing else is at stake. Consider the following argument for consequentialism. People too pass away, and planets evaporate. Email: hainesw@hkucc.hku.hk 6. is it happiness, pleasure, satisfaction of desire or something else? 30 videos - one minute each - introduce newsworthy scandals with ethical insights and case studies. One worry about the above argument is that its initial premise may be false. But Jill had handled gold a few times before and could make a good guess about whether the lumps were really gold. See Singer (1977); Norcross (1997). 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. 6. On consequentialist grounds, actions and inactions whose negative consequences outweigh the positive consequences will be deemed morally wrong while actions and inactions whose positive . For example, if stealing food feeds your starving family, a consequentialist would say it is the right thing to do. Although those three views disagree about which kinds of consequences matter, they agree that consequences are all that matters. Dual Consequentialism can say both of those things. 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. A Critique of Utilitarianism, in. Hedonism is the view that one's well-being is determined by the balance of one's positive and negative conscious experiences. Consequentialism is a broad school of ethical theory. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that suggests that the best actions are those that maximize utility. Consequentialism: The view that one ought to act in a way that promotes good outcomes. Pleasures pass by as quickly as actions. Even if every action does aim at some benefit, this does not show that the benefit is the whole reason for each action. William Haines Consequentialism refers to those moral theories that hold that the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgement about that action. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy gives a plain and simple definition of 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. Photo: Liz Fagoli, We cannot predict every outcome of an event. For example, this could be in times of war or a financial crash. Continued deception about a serious matter is difficult, so at the outset you must take into account the chance that you will fail or give up. Or one might propose instead that an action is good insofar as it causes less meddling and more total happiness. That is a reason to think that promoting equality in external goods will tend to do more total good than promoting inequality. Utilitarianism judges consequences by a greatest good for the greatest number standard. And what moves you to spend an hour with your friend or spouse or child should not be impartial calculations about the overall impact on the world at large. The Schizophrenia of Modern Ethical Theories., Taurek, John. For example when faced with a difficult situation in your life, you can use ethical theories to assist you in making the right decision. So, they agree that consequentialism is true. A third worry about the above argument begins from a view about the adjective good. In virtue ethics, one's character emerges from a " relevant moral community". But a problem with setting a very low speed limit is that driving very slowly takes up time. Hence actions and policies that promote equality in external goods will cause more happiness by promoting a sense of community. My situation stated above falls under . In Section 2 we shall look at two initial reasons to think consequentialism is true and some worries about those reasons. Back to Series Your email address will not be published. See Singer (1972); Jackson (1991); Kidder (2003). 1. I start with some easy examples. The Consequentialist Framework In the Consequentialist framework, we focus on the future effects of the possible courses of action, considering the people who will be directly or indirectly affected. A further worry about this new proposal is that it still does not directly tell us not to meddle. Therefore, it is necessary to advocate . One reply to this objection is that since you know better how to help yourself and those near to you, you will get better results if you focus on them rather than people strange to you or out of view. Hence the fact that consequentialism disagrees with common sense about odd cases is no disproof of consequentialism. The concept of consequentialism has been widely discussed in philosophical circles for centuries, and its implications are far-reaching. Oughts, Options, and Actualism., Mulgan, Tim, Two Conceptions of Benevolence., Murphy, Liam B. So far as you can tell, heads and tails are equally likely, even if objectively there is a 100% chance of heads. And, it's a form of lying and cheating. For example, if a certain action would be good for the bank account but bad for the health, there is a financial reason for it and a health reason against it. So consequentialism must be true. It has a moral sense and an objective sense. One example of consequentialism would be praising a burglar who accidentally robs a crime lord. One-of-a-kind videos highlight the ethical aspects of current and historical subjects. 8 yr. ago What if I told you Kantians are also concerned about the consequences of their actions? One of the main reasons to investigate moral theory is to learn how to approach these questions reasonably. For what is meant by love here? 58 animated videos - 1 to 2 minutes each - define key ethics terms and concepts. If we take the above view that the good is happiness, and plug it into Plain Consequentialism, we get the view that the right action is the one that causes the most happinessmore than would have been caused by any of the available alternative actions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Natural Rights: Bentham and John Stuart Mill. In. First, abstractly, to be moral is to do ones rational best to do what is objectively right. For purposes of Expectable Consequentialism, a 50% epistemic chance of a good result is half as good as a 100% probability of that same result. Giving him the next available organ means Mr X, who was top of the list, will die - but it also means that thousands of people will be very happy with their new hips. One might suppose that if a person has two conflicting desires, it is rational for her to replace them with a single compromise desire. Results-based ethics produces this important conclusion for ethical thinking: This far-fetched example may make things clearer: The classic form of results-based ethics is called utilitarianism. A rainbow is also a symbol for the LGBTQ+community as well, representing togetherness, unity, and pride. A different kind of reply to the objection is to propose a new standard for the goodness of consequences. The Teleological Ethical Theories are also concerned about the consequences of actions talking about the choice of right or wrong based on the good or bad effects it generates.

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