Act Vs Rule Utilitarianism

The Utilitarianism moral theory is based on the amount of pleasure or pain an action causes you and the people involved in your action. In the reading Utilitarianism,

In this paper I will explain how Act Utilitarianism, pure Rule Utilitarianism, and pseudo-Rule Utilitarianism would differ in their reasoning regarding the case of Al and Betty. With each method of reasoning, I evaluate the situation without background or moral assumptions of each character, and then separately with the assumption that while Al was away Betty became chronically ill and has one day left to live.

Utilitarianism also known as the principle of utility is an ethical theory proposed by early philosophers. This theory implies that actions are only judged by its consequences whether they are good or bad. One should perform a particular action because it will yield the best results for all. This approach also analysis the cost and benefit relationship. The downfall with this theory is that not everyone benefits (Fremgen, 2016).

In order to determine how different, the act and rule utilitarianism are, I will analyze it by applying them in the following scenario. Let’s imagine, you are a doctor in an oncology ward in a major city that is strapped for financial and material resources. One evening, two patients are admitted to the hospital. One patient is suffering from a seemingly incurable form of

Classical utilitarianism is a normative ethical theory which holds that an action can only be considered as morally right where its consequences bring about the greatest amount of good to the greatest number (where 'good' is equal to pleasure minus pain). Likewise, an action is morally wrong where it fails to maximise good. Since it was first articulated in the late 19th Century by the likes of Jeremy Bentham and later John Stewart Mill, the classical approach to utilitarianism has since become the basis for many other consequentialist theories such as rule-utilitarianism and act-utilitarianism upon which this essay will focus (Driver, 2009). Though birthed from the same

Act utilitarianism, on the other hand, judges each action individually and decides on its rightness by the resulting consequences. This approach can give situational leniency when needed as long as the action brings about the optimal results. As opposed to a rule utilitarian, an act utilitarian would say that lying is the right thing to do if it brings the best total outcome for those

Opponents of Act Utilitarianism attempt to argue that Act Utilitarianism (henceforth AU) does not account for justice when applied to ethical dilemmas. It is the authors opinion that these claims are factually incorrect and this essay shall attempt to prove this through analysis of common arguments against AU, and modifying AU to allow for justice to be more readily accounted for.

Act utilitarianism is based on specific acts in different situations. Act utilitarians act in a way that will always bring the most pleasure to the most amount of people, and each person is responsible for making their own decision about what is morally right in each case (Burnor and Raley, 116-118). A rule utilitarian would say that society should follow a certain set of hypothetical rules that would lead to the most pleasure. The rules need to follow the optimific social rule, which states that if everyone in a society follows this rule, then it would lead to the most happiness. Acts that follow the rules are

Act utilitarianism has two different versions. One versions says that an act is right if and only if its actual consequences would contain at least as much utility as of those of any other act open to the agent. Another version claims that an act is right if and only its expected utility is at least as great as that of any

The utilitarian faces many problems because he loses any ability to live a personal life. By this is meant that in making decisions the utilitarian must consider the steps which lead to the highest level of goodness in society. The utilitarian reaches for the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Two main aspects dominate the light of utilitarian beliefs. The consequentialist principle explains that in determining the rightness or wrongness of an act one must examine the results that will follow. The utility principle is that you can only deem something to be good if it in itself will bring upon a specific desired state, such as happiness or fulfillment. There are two types of utilitarians: Act utilitarians and Rule

Utilitarianism is also divided into two sub-categories called Act Utilitarianism and Rule Utilitarianism. While these both agree with the core principle of Utilitarianism, they differ in their ideas of the utility of individual actions. Act Utilitarian theorists agree that every action we do should create the greatest utility, and the principle of utility should be used depending on individual cases. Rule Utilitarian theorists focus on the possibility of moral rules, and using these rules to judge the morality of actions.

Utilitarian theory was given by John Stuart Mill and it accepts the principle of utility as the standard for determining the rightness of actions. According to this theory, our actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. An act is right if it produces the best aggregate consequences for all those affected by that given act. Thus, consequences of an action are the focus of this theory and as it takes into consideration, everyone affected by the consequences of an action, it promotes equality. Since consequences of an action are the focus of this theory, the rightness or wrongness of an action can be is easily decided by examining the likely consequences of an action and comparing them with the likely consequences of an alternative action. The action with better consequences is the one that should be performed. Act utilitarianism (AU) and Rule utilitarianism (RU) are two strands of utilitarianism. Drawbacks of AU such as the limitations of human knowledge to anticipate all the consequences of our actions, inability to be impartial all the time, problem of free-riders, and lack of importance to special duties such as promise keeping, autonomy, beneficence etc. gave rise to RU. According to RU, individual actions are judged to be right or wrong according to the consequences of a universally adopted general rule describing the action to be carried out. In simple word, RU suggests that an action is

The rule utilitarianism looks at the rules of actions which are potential and looks at what would happen if a certain

He distinguished/ classified between Act and Rule utilitarianism by referring them as extreme and restricted. The Extreme utilitarianism will use the rule of morality as rule of thumb only. It could also be altered in a benefit of the greater good or bliss where an action is right depend on the entire utility of that particular action and not general utility of an action. The situation determines the act if it is right or wrong. As an example, we can take saving a drowning person. For both extreme and restricted utilitarian, saving or rescuing a drowning person is the right thing to do. But if the rescuer was an extreme utilitarian and if the person knew that the drowning person was Hitler, he or she would let him drown. Since the action of a person could change in a benefit of the greatest utility.

Utilitarianism is a widely known and accepted form of consequentialism. Like the ideals of consequentialism, Utilitarian’s believe that actions are either morally right or wrong, based on what generates the greatest amount of Utility. More simply it comes down to whether the intended action does the greatest amount of good/happiness for the largest amount of people. Utilitarianism assesses the outcome of all situations using either the measurements of happiness or pleasure over that of dissatisfaction or pain. Utilitarianism can be broken into two subsets; Act Utilitarianism and Rule Utilitarianism. The ideals behind act utilitarianism are that whenever a decision is to be made on what action to take, the action that is chosen should maximise