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Full Idea
It is not that maximum welfare or 'the best outcome' stands outside morality as it foundation and arbiter, but rather that it appears within morality as the end of one of the virtues.
Gist of Idea
Good outcomes are not external guides to morality, but a part of virtuous actions
Source
Philippa Foot (Utilitarianism and the Virtues [1985], p.73)
Book Ref
Foot,Philippa: 'Moral Dilemmas' [OUP 2002], p.73
A Reaction
She cites justice and benevolence as aiming at different (and even conflicting) outcomes. I'm not sure about her distinction between 'outside' and 'within' morality. I suppose a virtuously created end is a moral end, unlike mere good states of affairs.
Related Idea
Idea 22460 Why might we think that a state of affairs can be morally good or bad? [Foot]
| 22458 | Consequentialists can hurt the innocent in order to prevent further wickedness [Foot] |
| 22459 | For consequentialism, it is irrational to follow a rule which in this instance ends badly [Foot] |
| 22460 | Why might we think that a state of affairs can be morally good or bad? [Foot] |
| 22461 | Good outcomes are not external guides to morality, but a part of virtuous actions [Foot] |
| 22462 | We should speak the truth, but also preserve and pursue it [Foot] |
| 22463 | Morality is seen as tacit legislation by the community [Foot] |
| 22464 | The idea of a good state of affairs has no role in the thought of Aristotle, Rawls or Scanlon [Foot] |