The Importance of Being Effective

Abstract John Gardner advanced the view that the duty to succeed is prior to the duty to try. He also argued that the duty to succeed might apply to an agent even if she is not subject to a duty to try because trying would be futile. This chapter explores Gardner’s views in this regard. First, it considers the reorientation of deontological theory to assign greater moral weight to consequences, of which Gardner was a leading advocate. Second, it shows how Gardner’s views about the persistence of a duty to succeed under conditions of futility rests on a rejection of at least some understandings of the proposition that ‘ought implies can’. Finally, the chapter develops a troubling implication of Gardner’s view, that is, wrongdoing is ubiquitous.