Quotes About Consequentialism

Utilitarianism is a type of hedonism.

The action is best that secures the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

If God is really at the center of things and God's good future is the most certain reality, then the truly realistic course of action is to buck the dominant consequentialist ethic of our age - which says that we should act only if our action will most likely bring about good consequences - and simply, because we are people who embody the virtue of hope, do the right thing.

It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.

They tend to be pretty abstract ones then, like doing what will have the best consequences; obviously you wouldn't specify what consequences are best, they may be different in some circumstances, so at a lower, more specific level, you may well get differences.

No morally imperfect human being(s), born into "the double darkness of sin and ignorance" could ever qualify for the position of Master Utilitarian Manipulator that Consequentialism needs to be put into practice.

action is best, which produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number

The utilitarian standard] is not the agent's own greatest happiness, but the greatest amount of happiness altogether; and if it may possibly be doubted whether a noble character is always the happier for its nobleness, there can be no doubt that it makes other people happier, and that the world in general is immensely a gainer by it.

Here the rule-utilitarian believes that the only justifiable rules are ones that will promote the greatest happiness, when generally adhered to in a deontic fashion. Thus the rule-utilitarian rejects "deontology" as a theory of moral justification, but accepts deontic constraints as an essential element of moral action.

It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong.

That action is best which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers.

It is the greatest good to the greatest number which is the measure of right and wrong.

The greatest happiness of the greatest number.

But it is true that in its usual forms, consequentialism seems to conflict with some of our deepest intuitions, certainly in new or unfamiliar situations.2 For example, human beings appear to be intuitive retributivists; they want wrongdoers to suffer. With respect to punishment, efforts to encourage people to think in consequentialist terms do not fare at all well.3

The action is best that secures the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

That action is best which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers.

deontologist believes that for something to be ethically correct, it must abide by a predefined set of moral rules or ideologies, and if an action breaks those rules then it is immoral, regardless of the outcome. A consequentialist believes that the moral value of an action purely depends on its outcome—the act itself doesn't carry moral weight, all that matters is whether its consequences are good or bad overall.

Turns out, utilitarianism's way too simplistic

The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest-Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure.

When you examined the facts judicially, and asked which would provide the greatest good for the greatest number, there could be only one answer.