Choices are to be derivatively assessed, in terms of the states of affairs they bring about. Consequentialists thus must specify the states of affairs that are intrinsically valuable—often called, collectively, “the Good.”

They then are in a position to assert that whatever choices increase the Good, that is, bring about more of it, are the choices that it is morally right to make and to execute. (The Good in that sense is said to be prior to “the Right.”)