It seems sensible to base ethics on producing happiness and reducing unhappiness.Results-based ethics plays a very large part in everyday life because it is simple and appeals to common sense: This says that the ethically right choice in a given situation is the one that produces the most happiness and the least unhappiness for the largest number of people. The classic form of results-based ethics is called utilitarianism. A non-consequentialist would say it is inherently wrong to murder people and refuse to kill X, even though not killing X leads to the death of 9 more people than killing XĮvaluating each decision would take too long.A consequentialist would say that killing X is justified because it would result in only 1 person dying, rather than 10 people dying.Suppose that by killing X, an entirely innocent person, we can save the lives of 10 other innocent people.This far-fetched example may make things clearer: No type of act is inherently wrong - not even murder - it depends on the result of the act.Results-based ethics produces this important conclusion for ethical thinking: So, for example, according to rule consequentialism we consider lying to be wrong because we know that in general lying produces bad consequences.Instead they use ethical rules that are derived from considering the general consequences of particular types of acts. In practice people don't assess the ethical consequences of every single act (that's called 'act consequentialism') because they don't have the time. Other forms of consequentialism take a more subtle approach for example stating that people should maximise the satisfaction of their fully informed and rational preferences.Hedonism states that people should maximise human pleasure.Utilitarianism states that people should maximise human welfare or well-being (which they used to call 'utility' - hence the name).People should live so as to maximise good consequencesĭifferent forms of consequentialism differ over what the good thing is that should be maximised.
#UTILITY ETHICAL PRINCIPLE HOW TO#
A person should choose the action that maximises good consequencesĪnd it gives this general guidance on how to live:.It gives us this guidance when faced with a moral dilemma: The more good consequences an act produces, the better or more right that act.Whether an act is right or wrong depends only on the results of that act.Consequentialism is based on two principles:
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