Actions can be right or wrong depending on consequences {consequentialism}. Actions can be right or wrong depending on result rightness or wrongness {act-consequentialism} {direct consequentialism}. Consequences can be personal or social, can be effects or states, can involve optima or only improvements, can lead to equitable distributions, or can surpass minimum thresholds. Utilitarianism is consequentialist. Actions can be right or wrong depending on consequences of choosing certain rules {indirect consequentialism} {rule-consequentialism}. However, people cannot know, pay attention to, or weigh all consequences. Perhaps, people cannot affect others much.
People value actions, goals, and people that contribute to survival {evolutionary ethics}.
Things can have value {instrumental value} because they help reach goals.
Ethics {pleasure theory} can depend on the most net happiness or pleasure, which can include the most equal sharing of happiness and pleasure, as in Mill's utilitarianism.
Right actions lead to good consequences, and wrong or bad leads to bad consequences {pragmatism, ethics}.
Ethics can include the most equal sharing of happiness and pleasure {utilitarianism}, as in Mill.
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Date Modified: 2022.0225