Agency and morality

Abstract

The traditional categorization of ethical theories into consequentialist, deontological, and virtue-ethical theories ignores the significance of the fact that philosophers supposedly representing these categories are working with different conceptions of what an ‘action’ includes, or what the object of an agent’s choice is. It therefore overlooks the fact that philosophers like Kant and Aristotle believe that right actions are chosen for their goodness. These theories give rise to the question what makes an action good. Contemporary ‘constitutivist’ theories argue that the normative standards determining the goodness of action arise from the function of action, which is to constitute the efficacy and so the agency of those who choose them.