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date: 06 July 2022

Abstract and Keywords

Act consequentialism provides an answer to the question of what one ought to do, no matter which situation one is in. The problem, however, is that this answer is rarely if ever known by the agent herself. Ordinary agents do not know all the consequences of their actions, nor do they know how to assess all possible consequences. This lack of both empirical and evaluative knowledge means that ordinary agents often, or always, do not know what act consequentialism tells them to do. This “ignorance challenge,” as we might call it, is often seen as one of the main challenges for act consequentialism. This chapter discusses the main responses to this challenge. It also asks whether this challenge is unique to consequentialism.

Keywords: consequentialism, ignorance, uncertainty, action-guiding, rationality

Krister Bykvist

Krister Bykvist is Professor of Practical Philosophy at Stockholm University, and Research Fellow at the Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm. His primary interests are in moral philosophy broadly conceived. Most of his research is on topics in normative ethics, including consequentialism, utilitarianism, population ethics, climate ethics, prudence, and well-being. In metaethics, he has done work on noncognitivism, the nature of intrinsic goodness, and the normativity of mental states. More recently, he has done work on moral uncertainty. He has coauthored a book on this topic entitled Moral Uncertainty, to be published by Oxford University Press (release date February 2020). He has also written a book on utilitarianism, entitled Utilitarianism: A Guide for the Perplexed (Continuum, 2010).

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