Questions tagged [consequentialism]
The consequentialism tag has no usage guidance.
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Why do some deontological ethical frameworks seem to reduce to consequentialism?
I may have a defunct understanding of deontological ethics, but for some reason it seems to me that deontological ethics ultimately reduce to consequentialist theories. Take, for instance, Kant's ...
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2answers
98 views
Should we pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge without considering the possible consequences? [closed]
For example, should Alfred Noble be blamed for suicide bombers as he created dynamite?
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12answers
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I'm being drafted to the military but I have the option to refuse (legally), would it be immoral for me to serve? [closed]
I’m set to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces but I have the option to exempt from the military if I wish to. So I’m in a big moral dilemma on whether I should serve or not, I’m currently leaning ...
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1answer
63 views
Ethics of saying “this cause is a just cause, but now is not the time to fight for it”?
This question stems from a discussion I heard with regards to LGBTQ rights in Arab and Muslim communities:
Arab progressive: LGBTQ rights are very important, and I respect LGBTQ people and think ...
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2answers
1k views
Is there a difference between utilitarianism and consequentialism?
In the Wikipedia entry about Anscombe, there is a quote where she juxtaposes traditional utilitarianism to 'consequentialism'.
In what sense are they different and what are some points of divergence (...
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1answer
354 views
do virtue ethics, deontology, and consequentialism all just assume their sets of preferences?
The way I understand it, there are three main branches of ethics:
Virtue Ethics: have a list of virtues to cultivate
Deontology: obey a list of moral rules
Consequentialism: the consequences of an ...
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1answer
112 views
Question about Chidi from The Good Place…SPOILER
Spoilers for The Good Place under the spoiler tag below:
I recently brought this up in an answer about fatalism, describing how free will would entail that we can predict the consequences of every ...
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2answers
141 views
If purpose is just another side of cause, is everyone a consequentialist?
Purpose is just another side of cause. This is what I take as a premise. One might change "cause" by "reason" sometimes, both are related.
Every non-randomistic process has some end after which this ...
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2answers
178 views
In trolleyology, why is the consequentialist choice invariant?
I've yet to read in trolleyologie any discussion of "sacrificing one to save many". Why is the consequentialist position seemingly always that way?
edit: if you know of trolleyologie paper or ...
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2answers
69 views
Would it be ethical to take an open source database and put a new name on it?
Lets say a person takes a free open source database software, creates a new name for it such as superdb.com, hosts it at AWS and offers cloud database services to the public, using the new name.
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A 'Different' Theory of Ethics
Is there a specific term for the theory of ethics which evaluates an action by comparing it to alternatives? I am aware of Deontological and Consequentialist theories, but if I understand correctly, ...
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1answer
400 views
How would a preference utilitarian decide about cheating on something or lying about something?
I cannot find a reliable example of either. I really just want a practical everyday example of the choice of a preference utilitarian.
Do preferences have weight? Is there some sort of "preference ...
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8answers
701 views
Can one be pragmatic when dealing with ethnic groups without being racist?
Situation A: A terrorist attack has just occurred and out of the several possible suspects, one of them belongs to an ethnicity notorious for violent behavior and extremist beliefs. The authorities ...
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1answer
157 views
Which philosopher maintained that virtue ethics, deontology and consequentialism can be reduced to each other?
I remember skimming an article by a female philosopher that argued that each of the three major kinds of ethics can actually be expressed in terms of each other.
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2answers
345 views
Utilitarianism or Kantianism
Which of these two theories is more accepted or has more support in the field of ethics?
It seems that Kantian ethics holds too stringent of rules and the the Universal Law of Formulation is ...
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6answers
486 views
Is it morally permissible to jump the queue? Can we prove that it's morally permissible?
Is it morally permissible to jump the queue? The situation is: Ken wanted to take a mini-bus. When he reached the bus stop, he found that his friend was in the first position of the queue. His friend ...
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1answer
138 views
A fallacious argument by the consequentialist, true or false?
A consequentialist asks
give me an example of an action which is obviously good regardless of its consequences.
You provide such an example (easily done). The consequentialist then argues that
...
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2answers
135 views
Do consequentialists consider all warring nations to be terrorist states?
Terrorists actively target civilians. Warring nations realize that their actions will lead to collateral damage and yet they proceed with their actions anyways.
Would a consequentialist then ...
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3answers
597 views
Can someone help me with some arguments and counter-arguments for consequentialism?
I might go into a lot of details but please bear with me.
I am going to give an example of what I want to defend consequentialism against (i.e. I am arguing for consequentialism by first refuting ...
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0answers
98 views
“To what extent would society break down without a moral code?”
Okay so I'm new here and I hope that this will abide by the rules and everything that the site dictates about questions.
The title of the page is a question I formulated for a school assignment.
I ...
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3answers
470 views
Are all ethical systems consequentialist?
Quoting Milton Friedman here
"If the end
does not justify the means, what does? But this easy answer does not dispose
of the objection; it simply shows that the objection is not well put. To
...
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2answers
4k views
What are the arguments against consequentialism?
SEP was of little help, saying in its concluding paragraph that
there still might be no adequate reason to deny consequentialism. We
might have no reason either to deny consequentialism or to ...
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2answers
414 views
From a consequentialist perspective, how is using slaves to build buildings immoral?
The consequences I can think of:
The slaves die
The slave's death can affect their families financially etc..
The buildings benefit people for many years ahead by providing shelter
To me it seems ...
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2answers
292 views
Is Rand's Objectivism consequentialist/consequentially motivated?
Background (not looking to get into the weeds on this; just clarifying my viewpoint): It seems to me that the concept of a moral force or law is not really empirically supported. That is, statements ...
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1answer
899 views
Why are deontological and virtue ethics not viewed as a subset of consequentialism?
Please help me get a better grasp on this topic.
Roughly, it seems that deontological ethics are grounded in consequences of following roles while virtue ethics are grounded in consequences of acting ...
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3answers
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Is Peter Singer an act or preference utilitarian?
Is his kind of utilitarianism not so "cut and dry" as can be labeled as one? Just the same as, "The lines of distinction between metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics are often blurry" (iep....
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6answers
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Has/can moral relativism be refuted and what are its implications for a true and useful ethical calculus?
It seems that the existence of moral relativism undermines the entire enterprise of ethics, as it devolves into a bunch of, albeit very smart, people abstractly formulating what is ultimately just a ...
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1answer
188 views
Temporally stable determination of value in consequentialism
If one is a consequentialist, one at least implicitly makes decisions based on how good or bad the consequences are. As such, you must implicitly have a function f that maps from the set of ...
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4answers
424 views
Is it ethical to block ads while still consuming content?
When browsing the web, many users block advertisements for a surprisingly wide variety of reasons. The site operator can send the user whatever they want, often a mix of the sought after content, good ...
