Jussi Suikkanen (University of Birmingham): ‘Act- and Rule-Consequentialism – Two Syntheses’

Abstract: As an indirect ethical theory, rule-consequentialism first evaluates moral codes in terms of how good the consequences of their general adoption are and then individual actions in terms of whether the optimific code authorises them or not. There are three well-known and powerful objections to rule-consequentialism’s indirect structure: the ideal world objection, the rule worship objection, and the incoherence objection. These objections are all based on cases in which following the optimific code has suboptimal consequences in the real world. After outlining the traditional objections and the cases used to support them, my presentation first constructs two new hybrid versions of consequentialism that combine elements of both act- and rule-consequentialism. It then argues that these views have sufficient resources for responding to the previous traditional objections to pure rule-consequentialism.

Jussi Suikkanen is a Reader in Philosophy at the University of Birmingham, where he has worked since September 2010. Jussi has a wide range of interests in philosophy. Whilst his own research mainly focuses on the more theoretical side of moral philosophy in metaethics and normative ethics, he is also interested in philosophy of language, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and history of philosophy.

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