A Simple Explanation of Consequentialism

Preface: These are based on the ideas of Landau, and interpreted by me.

Consequentialism, by definition, is the philosophical school of thought that the moral worth of an action is directly derived by the consequences of the action. In practice, this means that we are called to “look at the consequences of our actions or policies” . The attractiveness of consequentialism lies in the simplistic binary results and its apparent adaptability to different situations.

The general concept of consequentialism revolves around the idea of “[Doing] as much good as you can”. This leads to a simple binary method of determining the moral worth of any specific situation. For example, consider the argument:

P1. Doing x will yield happiness for 10 people.
P2. Doing y will yield happiness for 100 people.
C. Do y, as it produces the maximum level of happiness.

This optimistic way of thinking is structured around analyzing the situation, determining what is intrinsically good and intrinsically bad, and finally determining which option produces the highest ratio of good to bad. In theory, this construct is appealing because it simplifies decision making to follow a set of rigid guidelines. A decision is either the correct moral decision, or it is not.
Consequentialism is a theory, and as such, can be adapted to different situations. Simply, there are various versions of consequentialism that have their own preexisting conditions, which are relevant to the conclusion they yield. One such variation concerns environmental health; when making a decision one must consider “that acts are right just in case they yield the greatest improvement in environmental health."
The attractiveness of consequentialism is found in the fact that it is able to provide a reliable answer for each situation. The issue with it is that it may not produce the correct answer concerning all the variables, including the everlasting effect that the action has.