Consequentialism

Instructions
(1) You may consult your textbooks and your notes. But those are the ONLY resources you may use. Do NOT do outside research. This is partly because I want you to develop your own voice, and partly because most of the material you’ll find on the Internet is quite bad. By taking inspiration from it, you will probably do worse.

(2) Your essay should be roughly two doubled-spaced page, with 12-point font and 1” margins.

(3) Make sure your paper is in .doc or .docx format.

Prompt
Write an essay that:

(a) Explains how consequentialists measure the goodness of a state of affairs.
(b) Explains how consequentialists build upon (a) to define right action.
(c) Explains the Injustice Objection to Consequentialism.
(d) Explains why it is impossible to reconcile the idea that we should always maximize happiness with the idea that we should always respect people’s rights.

Your grade will depend on both the quality of your explanations and the quality of your writing. Each of (a)-(d) should take roughly a paragraph or two. Remember: tangents do not get you bonus points.