more on this theme | more from this thinker | more from this text
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]