Abstract
I argue against the standard view that it is possible to describe extensionally different consequentialist theories by describing different evaluative focal points. I argue that for consequentialist purposes, the important sense of the word ‘act’ must include all motives and side effects, and thus these things cannot be separated.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Adams, R.M., Motive Utilitarianism, Journal of Philosophy 73 (1976), pp. 467–481.
Bales, Eugene, Act-Utilitarianism: Account of Right–making Characteristics or Decisionmaking procedure?, American Philosophical Quarterly 8 (1971), pp. 257–265.
Crisp, Roger, Utilitarianism and the Life of Virtue, Philosophical Quarterly 42 (1992), pp.139–160.
Dancy, Jonathan, Moral Reasons. Blackwell, 1993.
Dancy, Jonathan (ed.), Parfit and Indirectly Self-Defeating Theories, in Reading Parfit. Blackwell, 1997, pp. 1–23.
Feldman, Fred, Doing the Best We Can. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1986.
Feldman, Fred, On the Consistency of Act-and Motive-Utilitarianism: A Reply to Robert Adams, Philosophical Studies 70 (1993), pp. 201–211.
Gruzalski, Bart, Parfit's Unified Theory of Morality, Philosophical Studies 50 (1986a), pp. 143–152.
Gruzalski, Bart, Parfit's Impact on Utilitarianism, Ethics 96 (1986b), pp. 760–783.
Johnson, Conrad, Character Traits and Right Action, Social Theory and Practice 15 (1989), pp. 67–88.
Kappel, Klemens, Has Dancy shown a problem in consequentialism? Theoria 65 (1999), pp.193–211.
Mendola, Joseph, Parfit on Directly Collectively Self-Defeating Moral Theories, Philosophical Studies 50 (1986), pp. 153–166.
Moser, Paul K., Consequentialism and Self-Defeat, Philosophical Quarterly 41 (1991), pp. 82–85.
Parfit, Derek, Reasons and Persons. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Pettit, Philip, Consequentialism, in Peter Singer (ed.), A Companion to Ethics. Blackwell, 1991, pp. 230–240.
Pettit, Philip and Brennan, Geoffrey, Restrictive Consequentialism, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 64 (1986), pp. 438–455.
Pettit, Philip and Smith, Michael, Global Consequentialism in Brad Hooker, Dale E. Miller and Elinor Mason (eds.), Rules and Consequences: New Essays in Rule Consequentialism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000, pp. 121–133.
Railton, Peter, Alienation, Consequentialism and the Demands of Morality, Philosophy and Public Affairs 13 (1984), pp. 134–171.
Railton, Peter, How Thinking about Character and Utilitarianism Might Lead to Rethinking the Character of Utilitarianism, Midwest Studies in Philosophy 13 (1988), pp. 398–416.
Williams, Bernard, A Critique of Utilitarianism' in J.J.C. Smart and B. Williams (eds.), Utilitarianism: For and Against. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1973, pp. 77–150.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mason, E. Against Blameless Wrongdoing. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 5, 287–303 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019671210369
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019671210369