A term now used for the view that all actions are right or wrong in virtue of the value of their consequences. The term was coined by Elizabeth Anscombe in her article 'Modern Moral Philosophy', but her use differed from the now current one.
Utilitarianism is the best-known form of consequentialism.
The term 'consequentialism' caught on because philosophers became interested in possible views that retained the consequentialist feature in utilitarianism while generalizing on its remaining features. For instance, there is no reason why in assessing consequences we need to confine ourselves, as the classical Utilitarians did, to pleasure or happiness or, as most modern economists do, to the satisfaction of desire. This form of pluralism stays within the confines of individual well-being, and we may therefore wish to generalize still further. That is, we can generalize further by adding to individual goods certain moral goods such as equality and respect for rights. This last stage of generalization, by giving independent weight to moral considerations such as equality and rights, may look as if it undercuts the distinction between consequentialism and non-consequentialism, but it does not.