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Single Idea 7590

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / g. Consequentialism ]

Full Idea

According to consequentialism, the fundamental concept of morality is not obligation (deontological ethics) but value (axiological ethics).

Clarification

Gk. 'deontos', a duty; 'axios', value

Gist of Idea

Consequentialism emphasises value rather than obligation in morality

Source

Roger Scruton (A Dictionary of Political Thought [1982], 'consequentialism')

Book Ref

Scruton,Roger: 'A Dictionary of Political Thought' [Pan 1983], p.89

A Reaction

These two views could come dramatically apart, in wartime, or in big ecological crises, or in a family breakup, or in religious disputes. Having identified the pair so clearly, why can we not aim for a civilised (virtuous) balance between the two?

The 107 ideas from Roger Scruton

4295 We favour our own animals over foreign ones because we see them as fellow citizens [Scruton]
4296 Brutal animal sports are banned because they harm the personality of the watcher [Scruton]
4263 Many of the stranger forms of life (e.g. worms) interest us only as a species, not as individuals [Scruton]
4264 Perception (which involves an assessment) is a higher state than sensation [Scruton]
4266 Having beliefs involves recognition, expectation and surprise [Scruton]
4265 If an animal has beliefs, that implies not only that it can make mistakes, but that it can learn from them [Scruton]
4267 Conditioning may change behaviour without changing the mind [Scruton]
4268 Animals command our sympathy and moral concern initially because of their intentionality [Scruton]
4269 An emotion is a motive which is also a feeling [Scruton]
4270 Do we use reason to distinguish people from animals, or use that difference to define reason? [Scruton]
4271 There is consciousness whenever behaviour must be explained in terms of mental activity [Scruton]
4272 Our concept of a person is derived from Roman law [Scruton]
4273 Kant's Moral Law is the rules rational beings would accept when trying to live by agreement [Scruton]
4274 The modern virtues are courage, prudence, wisdom, temperance, justice, charity and loyalty [Scruton]
4276 An animal has individuality if it is nameable, and advanced animals can respond to their name [Scruton]
4277 I may avoid stepping on a spider or flower, but fellow-feeling makes me protect a rabbit [Scruton]
4278 Lucky animals are eaten by large predators, the less lucky starve, and worst is death by small predators [Scruton]
4279 We can easily remove the risk of suffering from an animal's life, but we shouldn't do it [Scruton]
4280 Utilitarianism is wrong precisely because it can't distinguish animals from people [Scruton]
4282 Morality is not a sort of calculation, it is what sets the limits to when calculation is appropriate [Scruton]
4281 Utilitarianism says we can't blame Stalin yet, but such a theory is a sick joke [Scruton]
4283 Sympathy can undermine the moral order just as much as crime does [Scruton]
4284 All moral life depends ultimately on piety, which is our recognition of our own dependence [Scruton]
4285 As soon as we drop self-interest and judge impartially, we find ourselves agreeing about conflicts [Scruton]
4286 Only just people will drop their own self-interests when faced with an impartial verdict [Scruton]
4287 Utilitarianism merely guides us (by means of sympathy) when the moral law is silent [Scruton]
4288 Many breeds of animals have needs which our own ancestors planted in them [Scruton]
4289 Sheep and cattle live comfortable lives, and die an enviably easy death [Scruton]
4290 That which can only be done by a callous person, ought not to be done [Scruton]
4292 Concern for one animal may harm the species, if the individual is part of a bigger problem [Scruton]
4291 Letting your dog kill wild rats, and keeping rats for your dog to kill, are very different [Scruton]
4293 Introducing a natural means of controlling animal population may not be very compassionate [Scruton]
4294 Animals are outside the community of rights, but we still have duties towards them [Scruton]
18541 Beauty (unlike truth and goodness) is questionable as an ultimate value [Scruton]
18546 The pleasure taken in beauty also aims at understanding and valuing [Scruton]
18544 Maybe 'beauty' is too loaded, and we should talk of fittingness or harmony [Scruton]
18543 Do aesthetic reasons count as reasons, if they are rejectable without contradiction? [Scruton]
18542 Defining truth presupposes that there can be a true definition [Scruton]
18548 Natural beauty reassures us that the world is where we belong [Scruton]
18551 Croce says art makes inarticulate intuitions conscious; rival views say the audience is the main concern [Scruton]
18550 Art gives us imaginary worlds which we can view impartially [Scruton]
18553 Beauty shows us what we should want in order to achieve human fulfilment [Scruton]
18554 Prostitution is wrong because it hardens the soul, since soul and body are one [Scruton]
18556 Beauty is rationally founded, inviting meaning, comparison and self-reflection [Scruton]
7587 The issue of abortion seems insoluble, because there is nothing with which to compare it [Scruton]
7588 Allegiance is fundamental to the conservative view of society [Scruton]
7589 Altruism is either emotional (where your interests are mine) or moral (where they are reasons for me) [Scruton]
7590 Consequentialism emphasises value rather than obligation in morality [Scruton]
7592 For positivists law is a matter of form, for naturalists it is a matter of content [Scruton]
7593 Liberals focus on universal human freedom, natural rights, and tolerance [Scruton, by PG]
7594 Democrats are committed to a belief and to its opposite, if the majority prefer the latter [Scruton]
7595 The idea of a right seems fairly basic; justice may be the disposition to accord rights to people [Scruton]
12169 Since only men laugh, it seems to be an attribute of reason [Scruton]
12174 Only rational beings are attentive without motive or concern [Scruton]
12170 Amusement rests on superiority, or relief, or incongruity [Scruton]
12172 Objects of amusement do not have to be real [Scruton]
12173 The central object of amusement is the human [Scruton]
3878 Why should you believe someone who says there are no truths? [Scruton]
3879 Philosophy aims to provide a theory of everything [Scruton]
3880 Logical positivism avoids scepticism, by closing the gap between evidence and conclusion [Scruton]
3881 In the Cogito argument consciousness develops into self-consciousness [Scruton]
3882 Wittgenstein makes it impossible to build foundations from something that is totally private [Scruton]
3883 A true proposition is consistent with every other true proposition [Scruton]
3884 The pragmatist does not really have a theory of truth [Scruton]
3885 We only conceive of primary qualities as attached to secondary qualities [Scruton]
3886 Membership is the greatest source of obligation [Scruton]
3887 Maybe our knowledge of truth and causation is synthetic a priori [Scruton]
3888 Hume assumes that necessity can only be de dicto, not de re [Scruton]
3890 'Cause' used to just mean any valid explanation [Scruton]
3891 If p entails q, then p is sufficient for q, and q is necessary for p [Scruton]
3892 Every event having a cause, and every event being determined by its cause, are not the same [Scruton]
3894 We may define 'good' correctly, but then ask whether the application of the definition is good [Scruton]
3896 Any social theory of morality has the problem of the 'free rider', who only pretends to join in [Scruton]
3895 The categorical imperative is not just individual, but can be used for negotiations between strangers [Scruton]
3897 Epistemology is about the justification of belief, not the definition of knowledge [Scruton]
3898 My belief that it will rain tomorrow can't be caused by its raining tomorrow [Scruton]
3899 The representational theory says perceptual states are intentional states [Scruton]
3901 Touch only seems to reveal primary qualities [Scruton]
3903 The conceivable can't be a test of the possible, if there are things which are possible but inconceivable [Scruton]
3904 Measuring space requires no movement while I do it [Scruton]
3905 'Existence' is not a predicate of 'man', but of the concept of man, saying it has at least one instance [Scruton]
3906 If possible worlds are needed to define properties, maybe we should abandon properties [Scruton]
3907 Could you be intellectually acquainted with numbers, but unable to count objects? [Scruton]
3908 If maths contains unprovable truths, then maths cannot be reduced to a set of proofs [Scruton]
3910 If primary and secondary qualities are distinct, what has the secondary qualities? [Scruton]
3911 The very concept of a substance denies the possibility of mutual interaction and dependence [Scruton]
12164 Expressing melancholy is a good thing, but arousing it is a bad thing [Scruton]
12165 Romantics say music expresses ideas, or the Will, or intuitions, or feelings [Scruton]
12159 Without intentions we can't perceive sculpture, but that is not the whole story [Scruton]
12160 In aesthetic interest, even what is true is treated as though it were not [Scruton]
12161 We can be objective about conventions, but love of art is needed to understand its traditions [Scruton]
12162 In literature, word replacement changes literary meaning [Scruton]
12163 Literary meaning emerges in comparisons, and tradition shows which comparisons are relevant [Scruton]
12158 Aesthetic experience informs the world with the values of the observer [Scruton]
12156 Aesthetics has risen and fallen with Romanticism [Scruton]
12166 If music refers to love, it contains no predication, so it is expression, not language [Scruton]
12167 Reference without predication is the characteristic of expression [Scruton]
12168 Music is not representational, since thoughts about a subject are never essential to it [Scruton]
5660 Allegiance is prior to the recognition of individual rights [Scruton]
5653 A right is a power which is enforced in the name of justice [Scruton]
5636 Cartesian 'ideas' confuse concepts and propositions [Scruton]
5637 Nowadays logic is seen as the science of extensions, not intensions [Scruton]
8989 The benefits of social freedom outweigh the loneliness, doubt and alienation it brings [Scruton]
8987 On the surface of deconstructive writing, technicalities float and then drift away [Scruton]
8992 Deconstruction is the last spasm of romanticism, now become hopeless and destructive [Scruton]
8988 Two marxist ideas have dominated in France: base and superstructure, and ideology [Scruton]
8990 So-called 'liberation' is the enemy of freedom, destroying the very structures that are needed [Scruton]