Act Utilitarianism Essay

Act and Rule Utilitarianism

There are a lot of differences and similarities between act and rule utilitarianism. Act utilitarian supports the principle of utility must be applied to each individual situation. The rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by its usefulness. This was Bentham’s idea when he established that pleasure and pain was important qualities for determining what was morally right or wrong. With Act Utilitarianism, you must decide what action will bring the greatest good for the greatest number in the circumstance. For example, if you are in situation where lying would bring about the greatest good then, you should lie. This supports that the value of the consequence is in the particular act that would lead to the greatest good for the majority even it is was breaking the law. One of the benefits of Act Utilitarianism is that it is very flexible unlike Rule Utilitarianism. With
These rules consist of everyone following the same set of rules to bring about the greatest good. Unlike Act Utilitarianism, this principle states that you must follow the rules even if it doesn’t lead to the greatest pleasure of the individual at that time. It focuses solely on the idea that you should follow the rule that will bring out the greatest good within the community. For example, if rule utilitarianism decides that doctors should not be able to end human life. A rule utilitarian would have killed Mary to save Jodie’s life. If it was agreed that allowing euthanasia would be a bad rule as it would lead to people who are old or ill being scared or worried about being pressured into dying. A rule utilitarian would break these rules such as in the Dianne Pretty case. There has to be boundaries and rules to keep the society tolerable. In all cases the rule would take priority over the immediate situation. The rules established would be followed universally and would apply in all