Douglas W. Portmore is Professor of Philosophy in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. He is also an Associate Editor for Ethics: An International Journal of Social, Political and Legal Philosophy. His research focuses mainly on morality, rationality, and the interconnections between the two, but he has also written on well-being, posthumous harm, moral responsibility, and the non-identity problem. His latest book is Opting for the Best: Oughts and Options (OUP 2019).

• Contents


• 1. Introduction, Douglas W. Portmore


• I. Foundational Issues


• 2. Consequentializing, Paul Hurley


• 3. Relativized Rankings, Matthew Hammerton


• 4. Fault Lines in Ethical Theory, Shyam Nair


• 5. Consequences, Dale Dorsey


• 6. Alternatives, Holly M. Smith


• 7. Actualism, Possibilism, and the Nature of Consequentialism, Yishai Cohen and Travis Timmerman


• 8. Consequentialism, Blame, and Moral Responsibility, Elinor Mason


• 9. Consequentialism and Reasons for Action, Christopher Woodard


• 10. What should a consequentialist promote?, Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek


• II. Objections


• 11. Understanding the Demandingness Objection, David Sobel


• 12. Consequentialism and Partiality, Diana Jeske


• 13. Must I Benefit Myself?, Michael Cholbi


• 14. Consequentialism and Supererogation, Alfred Archer


• 15. Consequentialism and Promises, Alida Liberman


• 16. Consequentialism, Ignorance, and Uncertainty, Krister Bykvist


• 17. Consequentialism and Action Guidingness, Frank Jackson


• 18. Consequentialism and Indeterminacy, Caspar Hare


• 19. Value Comparability, Alastair Norcross


• 20. Consequentialism, the Separateness of Persons, and Aggregation, David Brink


• 21. The Alienation Objection to Consequentialism, Barry Maguire and Calvin Baker


• III. Forms and Limits


• 22. Global Consequentialism, Hilary Greaves


• 23. Rule Consequentialism, Brad Hooker


• 24. Consequentialism, Virtue, and Character, Julia Driver


• 25. Population Ethics, the Mere Addition Paradox, and the Structure of Consequentialism, Melinda Roberts


• 26. Deontic Pluralism and the Right Amount of Good, Richard Yetter Chappell


• 27. Conflicts and Cooperation in Act Consequentialism, Joseph Mendola


• IV. Policy, Practice, and Social Reform


• 28. The Science of Effective Altruism, Victor Kumar


• 29. Effective Altruism: A Consequentialist Case Study, Judith Lichtenberg


• 30. Consequentialism and Nonhuman Animals, Tyler M. John and Jeff Sebo


• 31. Public Policy, Consequentialism, the Environment, and Non-Human Animals, Mark Budolfson and Dean Spears


• 32. The Love-Hate Relationships between Feminism and Consequentialism, Samantha Brennan


• 33. Act-Consequentialism and the No-Difference Challenge, Holly Lawford-Smith and William Tuckwell


• Bibliography


• Index

Consequentialism is a major moral theory and a rival to such non-consequentialist theories as deontology, contractualism, and virtue ethics. It is the view that the only thing that matters morally is the consequences of an action. Thus, consequentialists hold that, to assess an act, we must first evaluate and rank the various ways things could turn out depending on whether it or some alternative act is performed. Its moral permissibility, then, depends on how its consequences compare to those of its alternatives on this ranking. This Handbook contains thirty-two previously unpublished contributions by leading scholars, covering the state of the art in consequentialist theory as well as pointing to new directions for future research.