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Single Idea 265
[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / g. Consequentialism
]
Full Idea
The description 'just' is applicable only to the benefit conferred or injury inflicted by someone with a just character and outlook.
Gist of Idea
An action is only just if it is performed by someone with a just character and outlook
Source
Plato (The Laws [c.349 BCE], 862b)
Book Ref
Plato: 'The Laws', ed/tr. Saunders,Trevor J [Penguin 1970], p.371
A Reaction
How should we describe the occasional administering of good justice by a generally wicked judge. Greeks focus on character, but moderns focus on actions.
The
34 ideas
with the same theme
[only good consequences matter in morality]:
23395
|
Mohists desire wealth, population and social order as the best consequences
[Mozi, by Norden]
|
1562
|
It is right to lie to someone, to get them to take medicine they are reluctant to take
[Anon (Diss)]
|
265
|
An action is only just if it is performed by someone with a just character and outlook
[Plato]
|
109
|
Clearly perfect conduct will involve both good intention and good action
[Aristotle]
|
5877
|
We judge people from their deeds because we cannot see their choices (which matter more)
[Aristotle]
|
22555
|
The function of good men is to confer benefits
[Aristotle]
|
1851
|
Good applies to goals, just as truth applies to ideas in the mind
[Aquinas]
|
19366
|
You can't assess moral actions without referring to the qualities of character that produce them
[Leibniz]
|
6233
|
A person isn't good if only tying their hands prevents their mischief, so the affections decide a person's morality
[Shaftesbury]
|
6246
|
My action is not made good by a good effect, if I did not foresee and intend it
[Hutcheson]
|
23674
|
If an attempted poisoning results in benefits, we still judge the agent a poisoner
[Reid]
|
3712
|
A good will is not good because of what it achieves
[Kant]
|
3725
|
The good of an action is in the mind of the doer, not the consequences
[Kant]
|
6197
|
Morality involves duty and respect for law, not love of the outcome
[Kant]
|
3767
|
Motive shows the worth of the agent, but not of the action
[Mill]
|
2872
|
In the earliest phase of human history only consequences mattered
[Nietzsche]
|
24094
|
Humans are vividly aware of short-term effects, and almost ignorant of the long-term ones
[Nietzsche]
|
4509
|
Utilitarians prefer consequences because intentions are unknowable - but so are consequences!
[Nietzsche]
|
23529
|
Conduct is not isolated from its effect on the moral code
[Hart,HLA]
|
22458
|
Consequentialists can hurt the innocent in order to prevent further wickedness
[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]
|
22464
|
The idea of a good state of affairs has no role in the thought of Aristotle, Rawls or Scanlon
[Foot]
|
22457
|
If the aim is good outcomes, why are killings worse than deaths?
[Scheffler, by Foot]
|
22411
|
For a consequentialist massacring 7 million must be better than massacring 7 million and one
[Williams,B]
|
22408
|
Consequentialism assumes that situations can be compared
[Williams,B]
|
4120
|
It is an error of consequentialism to think we just aim at certain states of affairs; we also want to act
[Williams,B]
|
5122
|
Maybe consequentialism is a critique of ordinary morality, rather than describing it
[Harman]
|
3785
|
You can't separate acts from the people performing them
[Glover]
|
6698
|
Negative consequences are very hard (and possibly impossible) to assess
[Graham]
|
23097
|
What matters for morality is the effects of action, not the psychological causes
[Kekes]
|
7590
|
Consequentialism emphasises value rather than obligation in morality
[Scruton]
|
4337
|
Teenagers are often quite wise about ideals, but rather stupid about consequences
[Hursthouse]
|
6853
|
Consequentialism wrongly assumes a clear line between an act and its consequences
[Crisp,R]
|