Utilitarianism, Utilitarianism And Rule Utilitarianism

     The Utilitarian belief asks the question, what would be the best for the greatest amount of people? Or in other words, what would be best for the majority? In our natural history, Utilitarianism has had a huge impact on how the American society operates. All the decisions, as a nation, are decided by the majority. The most popular example of this would be the voting for a new president to lead the county.

Utilitarianism poses an issue when it is used as the sole method for decision making. I do not agree with it at all. There is no way to truly calculate or measure the outcome of a situation. It involves setting aside your values to make a decision based on what will

Person A: Hey, I have not seen you in a while. What have you been up to?

Utilitarianism is a philosophical theory. It concerns how to evaluate a large range of things that involve choices communities or groups face. These choices include policies, laws, human’s rights, moral codes,

To fully understand and evaluate the objections raised by those not in favor of Utilitarianism, a better explanation of this ethical code is needed. Championed by men like John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism revolves around the moral standard of the “principle of utility” (122). This principle states that any action which brings about the most overall well-being into the world is both correct and actually morally required, and that by not acting on your “best” option, a person is acting immorally. An attractive aspect of this moral standard, at least to the majority of people, is that under its laws, all people’s happiness is

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

The most common use of utilitarianism is by way of consequentialist moral theory. Consequentialists believe that an act’s rightness and wrongness depends solely on its consequences and nothing else. An act is right when the algebraic sum of total utility unit

Using Rule Utilitarianism, it applies the Principle of Utility to moral rules. To analysis Linda situation we have to come with an appropriate moral rule. Linda has two alternatives either hire Mary or don’t hire Mary. If she hires Mary, then a moral rule could be “If I can hire someone who knows the current Medicare regulations, has the skills and knowledge I need, and can fill the vacant position, then I should do so”. This will benefit the workers who have to pitch in and cover the workload. Linda can have someone that has the qualifications she needs and doesn’t need to look for more people. The harm that this rule will cause is that Peter might end up leaving because he rarely speaks and Mary wants a lot of social involvement. Linda doesn’t

My overall philosophical view for the discussion about the “right to keep what you earned”, (Mackinnon and Fiala, 2015), can be altruistic, but I believe my view is more of the idea of Rule Utilitarianism. Rule Utilitarianism described in the book Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues “utilitarian theory that focuses on postulating general rules that will tend to produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number”, (Mackinnon and Fiala, 2015). One idea that I found useful to branch off Rule Utilitarianism is the root word known as utility. Utility means the most satisfaction or in another word to describe it by, is happiness, (McConnell, Brue, Flynn, 2015 McGraw-Hill). Although I have a belief that if someone works hard anyone can earn what they deserve in the end, however, I also believe that taxes should be paid no matter where the funds go

Rule utilitarianism principle in a general sense states that certain actions that decrease the utility of the society as a whole can be deemed unethical. In the case where a company actively markets and sells spyware to government agencies and those spyware application are used by such agencies to catch and deter criminals and terrorist; the company’s actions in such a scenario can therefore be deemed ethical within the bounds of rule utilitarianism principle as their actions are helping deter criminal and terrorist acts. When criminals and terrorists intent to harm the society through means of violence their actions are unethical and thus bring harm the natural rights innocent civilians. Their act of violence therefore has a negative impact

Utilitarianism is the ethical belief that the happiness of the greatest number of people is the greatest good. Jeremy Betham and John Stuart Mill are two philosophers that were leading advocates for the utilitarianism that we study today. In order to understand the basis of utilitarianism, one must know what happiness is. John Stuart Mill defines happiness as the intended pleasure and absence of pain while unhappiness is pain and the privation of pleasure. Utilitarians feel the moral obligation to maximize pleasure for not only themselves, but for as many people as possible. All actions can be determined as right or wrong based on if they produce the maximum amount of happiness. The utilitarian belief that all actions can be determined as right or wrong based only on their repercussions connects utilitarianism to consequentialism. Consequentialism is the belief that an action can be determined morally right or wrong based on its consequences. Just like any other belief system, utilitarianism faces immense amount of praise and criticism.

1. Utilitarians believe that “one should so act as to promote the greatest happiness (pleasure) of the greatest number of people” (Angeles 326). However, within the utilitarian community there are major splits in how we are to determine which action brings us the greatest amounts of pleasure. Today I will be focusing on two ways to determine which actions bring the greatest amount of pleasure to a situation: act and rule utilitarianism. I will define both act and rule utilitarianism, give a situation where both can be applied, and respond to an objection of utilitarianism. I will also be discussing why I believe act utilitarianism helps more people than rule utilitarianism, in turn, becoming ‘superior’ to rule utilitarianism.

The theory of Utilitarianism states that actions should be judged as right or wrong depending on whether they cause more happiness or unhappiness. It weighs the rightness and wrongness of an action based on consequences of that action.

Before I discuss the theory of utilitarianism, it is imperative to explain and understand what it is. Utilitarianism is a moral theory, or a doctrine explaining why certain actions are right or wrong. It is the idea that moral

A significant weakness of utilitarianism is that an individual may always find themselves in the position of the majority, ultimately their happiness is