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Full Idea
Making the best of a bad job is a consequentialist maxim, and it will have something to say even pn the difference between massacring seven million and massacring seven million and one.
Gist of Idea
For a consequentialist massacring 7 million must be better than massacring 7 million and one
Source
Bernard Williams (A Critique of Utilitarianism [1973], 2)
Book Ref
Smart,J./Williams,B.: 'Utilitarianism For and Against' [CUP 1978], p.93
A Reaction
If every life counts, the consequentialists have got something right here. Not caring exactly how many were massacred is a sort of callousness (even when the number can't be established).