[Barry the Sprout]

Originally posted by Epona: I'm definitely consequentialist Barry - the end sometimes justifies the means. Interesting thread by the way! Well for one I am an atheist. Two, mostly my personal philosophy and the way I live my life day to day is largely Epicurean (ethical hedonism) so I suppose to deconstruct it to a basic level good=pleasure and evil=pain and misery. On a personal level and a global one. To do good, I would therefore seek to maximise my own pleasure and happiness, thus lessening the total amount of misery in the world, which can only be a good thing. I must stress that this is never at the expense of others, which would cause misery, it is equally important to enhance the lives of others and reduce suffering and unhappiness as a general thing. But as absolutes, no I don't believe in forces of good and evil. It's about what we can do in the here and now to make our own lives happy and the world a better place.

But if you are a consequentialist then do you reject the idea of any kind of intrinsically "right" action? If you think the merits of the action depend entirely on its consequences then there can be no good or evil at all. Not saying this is a bad thing, just seeing if you agree with my conclusion. And it does seem to fit with the rest of your answer.

Either way, I'm just trying to get a discussion going here...