Philosopher (and friend) Massimo Pigliucci has now published the second in a series of essays on the foundations of ethics over at his blog, Rationally Speaking. The first article proposed a meta-ethics found between objective and relativist approaches. The second article explores the ethical theory consequentialism. Spoiler: Pigliucci doesn’t find it very compelling. He concludes:

[T]he reflections I forced myself into while writing this confirm my overall impression of utilitarianism: it is an initially appealing idea that is likely to die the death of a thousand small ethical cuts. This certainly doesn’t mean that consequences shouldn’t enter into moral discourse, but it does mean that I do not see an exclusive focus on consequences as viable to construct an entire ethical theory.