Definitions

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  • adjective philosophy producing the optimum outcome

Etymologies

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Examples

  • In response, Brandt argues for what he calls ideal rule utilitarianism, which makes the frame of reference for rule consideration not the actual rules available, but the ideal rule, i.e., the rule that would be optimific (productive of the best possible consequences), were it employed.

    Transport: a Flash-Fiction Triptych 2009

  • It is to make him into a channel between the input of everyone's projects, including his own, and an output of optimific decision; but this is to neglect the extent to which his actions and his decisions have to be seen as the actions and decisions which flow from the projects and attitudes with which he is most closely identified.

    Integrity Cox, Damian 2008

  • Moore's view, by contrast, is contradictory however ˜right™ and ˜ought™ are to be defined, since it implies that we sometimes ought to perform acts which (since they are not optimific) it is not the case that we ought to perform.

    Russell's Moral Philosophy Pigden, Charles 2007

  • It is to make him into a channel between the input of everyone's projects, including his own, and an output of optimific decision; but this is to neglect the extent to which his projects and his decisions have to be seen as the actions and decisions which flow from the projects and attitudes with which he is most closely identified.

    Bernard Williams Chappell, Timothy 2006

  • This indirect consequentialism had again been defended earlier, by Sidgwick and even John Stuart Mill, but Moore gave it a more conservative form, urging adherence to the rules even in the face of apparently compelling evidence that breaking them now would be optimific.

    Moore's Moral Philosophy Hurka, Thomas 2005

  • Singer's position, however ” (assuming that equal interests have been counted equally) ” must be that chattel slavery is wrong, if it is, because of the consequences, a position which, because it makes the wrongness of the institution contingent upon consequences, clearly implies that it would not be wrong, if the consequences happened to be optimific [sic].

    The Dog in the Lifeboat: An Exchange Regan, Tom 1985

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