Abstract

Commonsense consequentialism seeks to embrace the importance of commonsense features of the moral landscape (options and constraints, in particular), while retaining the consequentialist focus on the outcomes of our actions. In focusing on options, this chapter argues that a central presumption for commonsense consequentialist moral theories—in defending both the “commonsense” and the “consequentialist” aspects of such a view—is moral rationalism, or the principle according to which one is normatively required to conform to one’s moral requirements. However, we have reason to believe that moral rationalism is probably false, and hence attempts to “consequentialize” commonsense moral theories face a substantial justificatory challenge.