If I had to argue as a consequentialists I guess I would say that consequences matter because they are real effects, whereas moral intuitions like rightness don’t change anything apart from the mind of the agent.
This strikes me as begging the question. You say here that consequences matter because they are real effects [and real effects matter]. But the (hardcore) deontologist won’t grant you the premise that real effects matter, since that is exactly what his denial of consequentialism amounts to: the effects of an action don’t matter to its moral value.
If you grant my criticism, this might be a good way to connect your views to the mainstream: write up with a criticism of a specific, living author’s defense of deontology, arguing validly from mutually accepted premises. Keep it brief, run it by your teacher, and then send it to that author. You’re very likely to get a response, I think, and this will serve to focus your attention on real points of disagreement.
I see how it appears that I was begging the question. I was unclear with what I meant. When I say that “consequences matter because they are real effects”, I only mean that consequences imply observable differences in outcomes. Rightness for its own sake seems to me to have no observational qualities, and so I think it is a bad explanation, because it can explain (or in this case, justify) any action. I think you are correct that I need to defend why real effects matter, though.
This strikes me as begging the question. You say here that consequences matter because they are real effects [and real effects matter]. But the (hardcore) deontologist won’t grant you the premise that real effects matter, since that is exactly what his denial of consequentialism amounts to: the effects of an action don’t matter to its moral value.
If you grant my criticism, this might be a good way to connect your views to the mainstream: write up with a criticism of a specific, living author’s defense of deontology, arguing validly from mutually accepted premises. Keep it brief, run it by your teacher, and then send it to that author. You’re very likely to get a response, I think, and this will serve to focus your attention on real points of disagreement.
Hey Hen,
Thanks for your suggestion, I like it.
I see how it appears that I was begging the question. I was unclear with what I meant. When I say that “consequences matter because they are real effects”, I only mean that consequences imply observable differences in outcomes. Rightness for its own sake seems to me to have no observational qualities, and so I think it is a bad explanation, because it can explain (or in this case, justify) any action. I think you are correct that I need to defend why real effects matter, though.
Jeremy