PHIL 230 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: John Stuart Mill, Consequentialism, Noble Eightfold Path
4 Feb 2020
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To help us understand the nature of good/bad, right/wrong: cruelty is wrong, lying is wrong, tyranny is wrong. To help us find principles/rules about living in the right way. So: we tie our evaluation of the decision to (a) the outcome or (b) to the process. On (a), we judge a decision good if it promotes a good result or outcome. On (b), we judge a decision good if the decision-making process what"s good, apart from the outcome. Typical concepts: reasonable, wise, justifiable, rational: application to moral evaluation. The distinction between (a) and (b) applies in morality as well: consider the wrongness of racism. Racism is wrong because it causes harm to people. Racism is wrong because it is a biased form of thinking: lets focus on strategy (a) Initial challenges for consequentialism: step 1: consequentialists must identify the good and bad outcomes that matter more for moral right and wrong.
