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date: 06 July 2022

Abstract and Keywords

The consequences of our actions seem to matter. But what is the nature of the consequence relation that a particular act bears to, well, its consequences? This essay considers a number of traditional approaches to understanding the consequence relation. While many traditional approaches treat the consequence relation as built upon a causal relation, I hold that there are good reasons to doubt that the consequence relation should be understood in terms of causal relations, even if supplemented with the identity relation. Instead, I argue for a contrastive approach that, while not entirely free of problems, does a better job than standard accounts at capturing the relationship between an act and its consequences.

Keywords: consequences, cause, G. E. Moore, action, omission

Dale Dorsey

Dale Dorsey is Dean’s Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Kansas. He generally works in normative ethics, at the intersection of the personal good, morality, and practical rationality. He has also worked on metaethics and has written essays on the moral philosophy of David Hume, Francis Hutcheson, and John Stuart Mill.

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