Did he . did he fall over his own feet ? <| sep |> something that is not compatible with consequentialismYou can ' t just quote a single sentence that sounds like it ' s not compatible with consequentialism and declare that Harris can ' t be a consequentialist . If you have 1 nonconsequentialist statement and 50 consequentialist ones across his works , isn ' t it more likely that he meant it in a different context , rather than him being a weird mix of deontologist consequentialist . In the actual quoteEthically speaking , intention is nearly the whole story . The difference between intending to harm someone and accidentally harming them is enormousif for no other reason than that the presence of harmful intent tells us a lot about what a person or group is likely to do in the future . You can see he also suggests that intentions may matter for no other reason than that . intent tells us . what a person . is likely to do in the future .