COMM 2273 Lecture Notes - Lecture 59: Consequentialism, Deontological Ethics
10 Feb 2020
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It involves a sacrifice of personal individuality and stable identity. We do not claim that this consequence of adopting consequentialism makes doing so the greater evil, but that this sacrifice cannot be commensurate with the other consequences of one"s particular choices. The means constitute a good or evil because they shape our identity and sacrifice our personal individuality. Consequentialism does not allow an action itself to be weighed against its consequences, and thus fails to provide a conclusive guide for action: is the choice paradox. Consequentialism requires that two conditions be met (i) that a morally significant choice be made, and (ii) that the person making it be able to identify one option as offering unqualifiedly greater good or lesser evil. Why are the two conditions incompatible? or possibilities (the choice of some possibility can be morally significant and required only when an alternative possibility including doing nothing) can remain appealing.
