GOV 312L Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Classical Liberalism, Consequentialism
15 Feb 2017
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1724-1804: overlapped a little with rousseau. Moral theory supports theme of classical liberalism up to this point: rights take precedent over everything. You could do an action with terrible consequences, but if your intention was good, that is enough: he says morality often brings upon the opposite of happiness. Generates greatest good for greatest number of people. Also least bad for least number of people. Falls under category for consequentialism (judging moral acts based on what the consequences are) Consequences we strive for: happiness (different from aristotle) Excellence is a habit, habit leads to telos. Do what makes you happy regardless of consequences, i. e. you can kill people if that makes you feel good. The end goal is reaching telos by being virtuous. Intentions behind action, or the motive, matters consequences don"t matter. The harder it is to be moral, the more your actions are worth.
