An Evaluation of Elizabeth Anscombe Thoughts on Consequentialism

Abstract

All human actions revolve around being right or wrong, good or bad. Humans are therefore saddled with the responsibility of carrying out right actions. Value statements as well as value in terms of good or bad are given to human actions, and it is the responsibility of ethics to give value judgement. The giving of this judgement is formed against various paradigms for judgment. The consequences of action become important for those who consider themselves as consequentialists. For them, the moral rightness of an action is determined by the level of good that emerges from a given action. Could this be generally acceptable? Should the consequences of actions be the background on which value judgements are to be made or human actions? The emergence of Anscombe’s critique on utilitarianism is formed against this backdrop. For her virtue ethics should take the driver’s seat hence actions ought not to be evaluated using the “morally ought” because it gives room for any possible action provided the consequences is good. In up-holding this, she postulates moral psychology as a way forward which she also considers to be problematic because the content needs to be properly understood and explained. In modern moral ethics, Anscombe gives one the opportunity of x-raying consequentialism noting its short-comings and thus prepares the fertile ground for the propagation of virtue-ethics.