Consequentialism, as commonly understood, tells us, in effect, always to do what is best. And how, one wants to ask, can that be improved upon? If it cannot, why bother with the categorical imperative, the divine command theory, natural law, and other pretenders to the throne of supreme moral principle? We know there are acts. We know they have consequences. And we know these consequences are good or bad in varying degrees. We do not know whether there is a God, or if there is one, exactly what he commands. Even less can we be sure what Kant meant, or what cognitively deprived rational beings would agree to in a cloistered original position. So why not simply cast our lot with William James when he says there is “but one unconditional commandment, which is that we should seek incessantly, with fear and trembling, so to vote and to act as to bring about the very largest total universe of good which we can see”? And having done that, why not devote our energies to working together to achieve that end?

This oversimplifies, of course, but it contains the elements of a prima facie case in favor of consequentialism.

Two other claims reinforce this case. Both, if correct, have far-reaching implications. They bear in particular upon the relevance of moral philosophy to practical affairs, especially in light of the growing conviction—not shared by all, by any means, but nonetheless widespread—that moral philosophy ought, in some sense, to concern itself with the problems of people in what social scientists like to call the “real world.”

The first claim is that, whether philosophers intend it or not, ethical theory over time works its way into the thinking of ordinary persons, where it exerts a subtle and largely unnoticed influence. So that while it may be debated whether philosophers should expressly tackle problems like poverty, discrimination, euthanasia, and war, philosophy is already having its influence in the way of spinning the perspectival web within which those problems are located and understood. Dewey captured the spirit of this outlook early in his career, when he observed: