I'm not an expert on ethical philosophy, but I don't see how it's possible to escape consequentialism. The best arguments for deontology and/or virtue ethics seems to be: we can't reason through every possible consequence, and people would come up with self-serving rationalizations to justify behavior that benefits them at the expense of others, possibly without being aware of it... It's easier/more effective to have a set of guidelines that will generally lead to better OUTCOMES for all concerned... Pursuing virtue, just trying to do the right thing and be a good person, to cultivate humility, courage, etc, is likely to be good for you and the people around you... IOW consequences. Even if you believe morality comes from God...hellfire and/or God's displeasure are consequences. When I try to imagine what it could possibly mean for an action to be intrinsically right or wrong, regardless of any possible consequence it could have in this or any conceivable world...my mind just draws a blank. Does not compute. I can't think of any examples of people believing something is wrong without believing that it would some sort of negative consequence.
This will depend a lot on your morality. Consequentialists / Utilitarians will look to outcomes to determine morality and hence empirical evidence.
I'm not an expert on ethical philosophy, but I don't see how it's possible to escape consequentialism. The best arguments for deontology and/or virtue ethics seems to be: we can't reason through every possible consequence, and people would come up with self-serving rationalizations to justify behavior that benefits them at the expense of others, possibly without being aware of it... It's easier/more effective to have a set of guidelines that will generally lead to better OUTCOMES for all concerned... Pursuing virtue, just trying to do the right thing and be a good person, to cultivate humility, courage, etc, is likely to be good for you and the people around you... IOW consequences. Even if you believe morality comes from God...hellfire and/or God's displeasure are consequences. When I try to imagine what it could possibly mean for an action to be intrinsically right or wrong, regardless of any possible consequence it could have in this or any conceivable world...my mind just draws a blank. Does not compute. I can't think of any examples of people believing something is wrong without believing that it would some sort of negative consequence.