consequentialism.

An approach to ethics that evaluates actions or rules fundamentally through their consequences.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• consequentialist ethics
• forms of consequentialism

On the page

The argument for consequentialism compared the resulting states of affairs.

Different forms of consequentialism disagreed about which consequences mattered.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: explicit explanation, scope and categorization, proof and interpretation, philosophical foundations. Disciplines: academic writing, formal reasoning, philosophy. Commonness: moderately common.