MULTIDIMENSIONAL CONSEQUENTIALISM Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • AbstractThis article introduces and explores a distinction between multidimensional and onedimensional consequentialist moral theories. Onedimensional consequentialists believe that an act's deontic status depends on just one aspect of the act, such as the sum total of wellbeing it produces, or the sum total of priority or equalityadjusted wellbeing. Multidimensional consequentialists believe that an act's deontic status depends on more than one aspect. They may, for instance, believe that the sum total of wellbeing produced by an act and the degree to which the wellbeing is equally distributed in the population affect the act's deontic status independently of each other. These two aspects cannot be reduced into any single (composite) aspect. Wellbeing and equality are two separate considerations that cannot be merged into some novel entity that accurately reflects both intuitions. On the multidimensional view I defend, such clashes between separate aspects are irresolvable and are best accounted for by claiming that moral rightness and wrongness are nonbinary concepts. Some acts are, literally speaking, a little bit right (because they maximise wellbeing) and a little bit wrong (because they do not maximise equality).1

published proceedings

  • Ratio

altmetric score

  • 1

author list (cited authors)

  • Peterson, M.

citation count

  • 3

complete list of authors

  • Peterson, Martin

publication date

  • June 2012

publisher