CAS PH 150 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Eudaimonia, Categorical Imperative, Virtue Ethics
9 Apr 2017
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Consequentialism states that the right action is the one that produces the best consequences. Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, and wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness, but only for utilitarians. The question of whether your action is right or wrong does not depend on your reason for performing it. Utilitarianism is a kind of consequentialist theory, and states that the greatest happiness for the greatest number should be the guiding principle of conduct. While the greatest good alone is stressed by consequentialists, utilitarians stress the greatest good for the greatest number of people. According to mill, happiness is pleasure and the absence of pain. The reverse of happiness is pain and the absence of pleasure. Utilitarianism maximizes good for the most people, while egoism states that good consequences for the individual agent outweigh the consequences placed upon others.
