Act/Rule Utilitarianism Flashcards
What is actualism? Issues with this view?
Idea that you should base your decisions on their actual outcomes
Issue that we don’t know what this actual outcomes will be so making a decision based on actualist utilitarian views is really difficult
Cases such as the Rash Doctor or the man who punches someone in the face, their victim then starts a successful anti-violence campaign illustrate the difficulties. It would be right to punch someone in the face??¿
What is Rule utilitarianism?
The rightness or wrongness of an action does not depend directly on whether the action maximises happiness but on certain rules that maximise happiness is everyone or the vast majority of people were to follow them.
Customary rules in our society offer a set of guild lines that appear very utilitarian.
What is probabilism?
That you judge whether to do something on their likely outcome, may not maximise happiness but it is likely to.
What is the issue with hedonistic calculus?
Time consuming, and difficult
Rule utilitarianism eliminates the need for it
What is act utilitarianism?
The principle of maximising pleasure and minimising pain should be applied straight to acts, an agents action is right based purely on the utility that action will produce
Issue that we don’t know, our acts could influence for eternity, how can we figure out whether it will lead to more or less utility
What is multi-level utilitarianism?
Mill seems to suggest this
Follow rule utilitarianism except when principles come into conflict, then apply to act utilitarian principles.
Question of whether this is theoretically coherent or a patchwork
What is customary morality include mantras that favour homophobia, xenophobia ect? How do we correct ingrained views is we don’t think about individual acts and their consequences when following rule utilitarianism?
Hmm
In the case of punching someone in the face, leading to a good utility bc they begin a anti-violence campaign? Even if they knew it would have good utility, does it justify them punching someone in the face?
I would say probs yes?
But killing, and other awful things could be justified under this principle. Not ok
Could someone realistically be an act utilitarian?
Not really
People would have to be completely indifferent between people
People could not prefer their own utility over the utility of others
Would have to be educated to apply the principle
Not possible arguably
Although probabilistic act utilitarianism seems more usable than actualist act utilitarianism? There are still issues such as
Killing and other morally questionable actions can still be justified.
When does Mill think you should directly appeal to the utility principle?
- Where a particular circumstance makes it legitimate to violate a moral code
- A case of circumstances with no conflicting obligations
- Where no moral code governs a choice, but important utilities are at stake
Steal a loaf of bread to save someone’s life
Lie to the axe wielding maniac about which direction your friend ran
Moral codes don’t decide whether you should have a child, who to marry ect
What is the rule worship issue?
When people stick to rules for no good reason they rule worship
If we accept rule utilitarianism in a strict form, morality is oversimplified
What did Rawls say about rules?
‘Summaries of past decisions arrived at the direct application of the utilitarian principle to certain cases’
Why did Mill like rule utilitarianism?
Places no intrinsic value on customary morality
BUT
thinks it’s a good way to max happiness
Right outcomes more likely to be achieved by following justified rules that by trying to calculate the tendency of an action each time
Following a not multi-level view is?
Too simplistic
