Pros And Cons Of Rule Consequentialism

313 Words2 Pages
According to Professor Douglas W. Portmore, a rule consequentialist, “holds that the rightness of an act depends not on the goodness of its consequences, but on whether or not it is in accordance with a certain code of rules, which has been selected for its good consequences” (Portmore, par 3), which provides that so long as rules prohibit lying then it would be wrong. As to when lying would be permitted, it would solely depend on if the lie adheres to specific rules that have been established. For instance, in the bible one of the Ten Commandments prohibits lying, therefore, with respect to the divine command belief, it would be pertinent to a rule consequentialist (who believes in the divine command theory). On the contrary, if a rule consequentialist