Topics Ethics

Question What would a consequentialist say about acts that have seemingly moral dimensions but no apparent consequences? For instance, it seems wrong to wish for something really bad to happen to someone (e.g. to be hit by a car), but if this wish has no impact on what actually happens, it seems it cannot be wrong due to its consequences.

Accepted:
December 18, 2014

Comments

Well, having bad feelings about other people may not directly impact on them, but it impacts on us, and this has consequences. For example, the more we contemplate their undoing the more we accustom ourselves to think approvingly of others suffering and this might well weaken our disapproval of such suffering. It may well be that we do nothing to bring about such suffering, but it is difficult to believe it would not have an effect on us.

To give an example, my negative feelings towards a group of people might not result in my treating them in any way differently from anyone else, but if others act in line with my feelings it would be less easy to disapprove. Even if this never happens, I change as a result of my feelings and become a different sort of person, and this is certainly an effect.