You might say that as a psychological reality, a moral theory is unlikely to be successful unless people believe its adoption tends to promote good consequences.
But there’s nothing logically that would require moral theories to ultimately dissolve into actions that promote good consequences… Kant’s categorical imperative famously forbids lying or sparing murderers capital punishment regardless of whether the whole world burns as a result.
While Kant’s ethics doesn’t logically reduce to consequentialism, the categorical imperative seems to rest on assumptions about long-term outcomes. Kant’s insistence on a universal prohibition against lying appears grounded in the belief that a strict norm of truth-telling creates a more stable and morally reliable society, even if it leads to worse outcomes in rare cases. So while consequences aren’t the explicit justification, they seem to determine the principles we find reasonable and can will to become a universal law.
If the claim is that every moral theory is equivalent to ‘rule consequentialism’, maybe you have more of a case. But ‘act consequentialism’ is very distinct I think.
You might say that as a psychological reality, a moral theory is unlikely to be successful unless people believe its adoption tends to promote good consequences.
But there’s nothing logically that would require moral theories to ultimately dissolve into actions that promote good consequences… Kant’s categorical imperative famously forbids lying or sparing murderers capital punishment regardless of whether the whole world burns as a result.
While Kant’s ethics doesn’t logically reduce to consequentialism, the categorical imperative seems to rest on assumptions about long-term outcomes. Kant’s insistence on a universal prohibition against lying appears grounded in the belief that a strict norm of truth-telling creates a more stable and morally reliable society, even if it leads to worse outcomes in rare cases. So while consequences aren’t the explicit justification, they seem to determine the principles we find reasonable and can will to become a universal law.
If the claim is that every moral theory is equivalent to ‘rule consequentialism’, maybe you have more of a case. But ‘act consequentialism’ is very distinct I think.