Ethics

The Basis of Right Action

What ultimately makes an action right: the duty it fulfils, the consequences it brings about, the character it expresses, or God's command?

Positions

  1. Consequentialism

    Right action is what produces the best outcomes.

    Held by Classical Utilitarianism, Mohism

  2. Divine Command Theory

    An action is morally required because God commands it, and wrong because God forbids it.

  3. Kantian Deontology

    Actions are right when they respect duties and persons, not merely when they produce good consequences.

    Held by Kantian Critical Philosophy

  4. Virtue Ethics

    An action is right when it is what a practically wise, virtuous person would characteristically do in pursuit of human flourishing.

    Held by Confucianism, Peripatetic School, Stoicism, Virtue Ethics Revival

Engaged by schools of thought

  • Cynicism

    The Cynics answered that virtue is sufficient for happiness and consists in living according to nature, in self-sufficiency and the disregard of convention; they taught it by example and by shocking practice rather than as a theory, so no named position is attributed.

Methods used to investigate this question

  • Socratic Elenchus

    Socratic elenchus tests an interlocutor's claim through questions that draw out its commitments and expose inconsistency among the answers.

    Open in Methods

Discussion

Normative ethics asks what ultimately makes an action right or a life good. Four broad answers compete for the same ground: that rightness is fixed by rules or duties, by the consequences an action produces, by the character and virtues of the agent who acts, or by what God commands. A single hard case — a costly promise, a risky rescue — is judged differently depending on which of these is taken to carry the weight.

This is a question about the standard of conduct. Its three most widely taught answers are deontology, consequentialism, and virtue ethics; Divine Command Theory grounds rightness in God's commands instead.

References