Conatus: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

others. In this chapter I’ve introduced the idea of consequentialism, which, as the name suggests, focuses more on outcomes rather than hypothetical reasons for why we should or should not do things. Consequentialism is a moral doctrine that holds that the right action in any situation is the one that leads to the best outcome over all. Consequentialism ties in well with the pragmatism that we explored a little as a version of truth or truth-seeking back in Chapter 2. Pragmatism, is not so much about discovering actual truth as finding ideas that assist us in our human projects. The reader will recall that Chapter 2 questioned what those projects might be. Whilst consequentialism might still be an individual pursuit, this link with pragmatism suggests it applies more to moral theories that seek the good of cultures, nations and societies.

Utilitarianism and distributive justice are consequentialist in nature (although rule utilitarianism has an element of rules-based ethics). Virtue ethics starts with the individual person and proposes that, if a person can be educated or otherwise persuaded towards good behaviour, then this, in turn, would lead to a better society.

Discourse ethics takes a number of different forms and is often a kind of contract between various parties to agree a set of rules that are then followed in order to achieve an outcome that is considered beneficial. It takes in all of our other types of morality, even virtue ethics, in the sense that a certain regard for the moral integrity of others is assumed. We could say that the institution of government, which we

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