These theoretical perspectives cannot be based on physical, empirically scrutable principles and so they are defensible only through meta-ethical philosophy, relying on logical arguments and fundamental assertions on which actions are good or bad. There are many forms of this theory, mainly differing on what the determinant of a ‘good’ outcome is, and many forms of opposition to it.

Mooreâs Ethics another example would be Mooreâs own non-hedonistic âidealâ utilitarianism proposed in the same book.â Moore takes (hedonistic) utilitarianism to contain the âprincipleâ that âa voluntary action is right, whenever and only when the agent could not, even if he had chosen, have done any other action instead, which would have caused more pleasure than the one he did doâ.Consequentialism is the ethical theory that the moral value of an action may be determined by the sum of its outcomes. A well-known consequentialist theory would be the hedonistic utilitarianism described in the first two chapters of G.E. It indicates, for example, that the kind of theory I have in mind is âact consequentialismâ, rather than ârule consequentialismâ. Or utilitarianism (in a broad sense), can be interpreted in many different ways.â In The Cambridge Dictionary o f Philosophy, there is no separate entry for âconsequentialismâ the reader is referred to âutilitarianismâ, and this is in turn explained as âthe moral theory that an action is morally right if and only if it produces at least as much good (utility) for all people affected by the action as any alternative action the person could do insteadâ.* This is a sufficient starting point for my purposes in this paper. Mooreâs Ethics another example would be Mooreâs own non-hedonistic âidealâ utilitarianism proposed in the same book.â Moore takes (hedonistic) utilitarianism to contain the âprincipleâ that âa voluntary action is right, whenever and only when the agent could not, even if he had chosen, have done any other action instead, which would have caused more pleasure than the one he did doâ.4 Notice, however, that, for Moore, utilitarianism does not only say âthat

Reflections on consequentialism Reflections on consequentialism

Hedonic consequentialism