The main alternative to teleological ethics (which has us looking at the consequences of our actions to determine whether they are morally right or wrong) is DEONTOLOGICAL ethics that proceeds through an analysis of the nature of the action itself. If an action is instrinsically bad morally speaking, it doesn't matter if it has a good outcome. And if an action is intrinsically good morally speaking, we should do it even if the outcome is bad.

One main proponent of this view is Immanuel Kant, who version of deontology famously includes reference to THE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE. We'll be talking more in class about how he finds his way to the categorical imperative and what some of its strengths and weakeness are, but do this assignment to get a good overview.