Nonconsequentialist Theories - Essay Example

Nonconsequentialist Theories The Non Consequentialist theories that consequences should not find their way into our moral judgements. It meansthat actions are to be judged good or right in line with other criteria i.e. divine command or intuitions. They are categorized as; Act non-consequential theories and Rule non-consequentialist theories.Rule Non-Consequentialist theories are of the idea that blanket rules should be employed to govern the society since they will introduce a greater good.

One of the major examples in Rule Non-Consequential theory is the divine command theory that claims that our only source of morality or moral authority is from a higher source, a spiritual deity like God. On the real world, an example is the adherers of the Catholic Church (Iep.utm.edu, 2015). Many of these followers base their moral values on what is written in the Bible. They believe whatever the scripture says or its interpretation by the church leaders to be moral. Two examples are the Catholic Church’s opposition to birth control and homosexuality.

These stands would never be agreed upon by secular reasoning alone, it takes religion.On the other hand, Act Non-Consequentialist Theories are of the idea that we should not employ general or blanket rules but act on a case by case basis. The theory states that only individual acts and situations count morally. The theory is against generalisation since every situation is different. They are based on emotions and intuitions to be able to come up with moral conclusions. For example, most people have the intuition that, needlessly hurting somebody else is wrong.

Such a claim does not need further elaboration and the reasons why we have this stand cannot be explained easily (Lesswrong.com, 2012). What people do is to come up with rationalisations why everyone should support this claim.ReferencesIep.utm.edu,. (2015). Divine Command Theory | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 15 April 2015, from http://www.iep.utm.edu/divine-c/Lesswrong.com,. (2012). Thoughts on moral intuitions - Less Wrong. Retrieved 15 April 2015, from http://lesswrong.

com/lw/dc5/thoughts_on_moral_intuitions/