The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Ethics by David Ingram Ph.D. & Jennifer A. Parks

Author:David Ingram, Ph.D. & Jennifer A. Parks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DK Publishing
Published: 2017-08-16T04:00:00+00:00

Looking Back

What’s more, consequentialists are future-looking people who don’t consider the past. This means that whenever you have to decide between choices, you work out the consequences of each choice and go with the one that achieves the best future outcomes. So you’re trying to determine what, in the next five minutes or five years, will be the act that maximizes happiness and minimizes pain. But think about this: sometimes our best reasons for choosing an act are based on the past, not on some future case.

If you have a box of chocolates to give away, consequentialism dictates that you give the chocolates to whoever will benefit the most from them. Everyone gets equal consideration for the box of chocolates. But suppose you have a dear friend (unlike the guy in the last example) who’s gone to the ends of the earth to help you out. You have backward-looking reasons for choosing to give the box of chocolates to your friend, even if she won’t get the most benefits from them. The backward-looking reasons are that she’s been good to you; she’s been there for you in the past. Consequentialist calculations don’t include these reasons from the past. And there’s got to be something wrong with a theory that overlooks obligations we owe to people because of our history with them.

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