COMS 3400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Consequentialism

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Communication and Media Studies
• Course: COMS 3400
• Professor: Ira Wagman

Document Summary

Consequentialist ethics are concerned with assessing how to develop actions in situations that will produce the best overall benefits. The rightness or wrongness of the action is entirely dependent on the results of the act no concern for rules or virtues. When faced with a moral dilemma choose the option that produces the best consequences! Seek the greatest happiness for the aggregate whole . We could say that something like stealing is bad because generally speaking it produces negative consequences this is called rule-based consequentialism -- no act is inherently wrong, since it depends on the effect of the act. Provides sensible and reasonable solutions for everyday living. Appears to most people as a kind of common sense that is already a part of the way they behave and make decisions. We cannot necessarily know for sure whether happiness can be achieved because it"s hard to determine what exactly it is.