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Rule Utilitarianism

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When discussing both act and rule utilitarianism, it is important to understand that both of them agree in terms of the overall consequence of an action, because they emphasize on creating the most beneficial pleasure and happiness in the outcome of an act. Despite this fact, they both have different principles and rules that make them different from each other. Act utilitarianism concentrates on the acts of individuals. Meaning that if a person commits an action, he/she must at least have a positive utility. The founders of utilitarianism define positive utility as happiness and pleasure and consider it to be a driving force of all positive and morally right acts. According to Jeremy Bentham, and John Mill Stuart happiness to them comes from …show more content…

Rule utilitarian’s believe that they must obey the rules and must have a moral code in order to fulfill and maximize happiness and pleasure. Meaning that rules and laws that produce better results should be enforced. Rule utilitarianism focuses on the deontological theories, meaning that their principle is that we as human beings should not do evil, and should be optimistic and that the good will follow after that. This type of theory focuses on the rules and duties that the individual must use in order to reach the greater happiness and pleasure. In addition, rule utilitarianism has adapted a couple of outlooks that emphasize the importance of the moral code after the action has been committed. According to rule utilitarianism, a particular action is right as long as it’s done in the context of obeying the rules. In the case of drunk driving act, utilitarianist will prohibit such actions because it conflicts with the current rules and regulations. The rule utilitarian perspective it's problematic because firstly it would not grant the person full pleasure, and because of the possibility of causing more pain. Therefore, rule utilitarianism then focuses on rule makers that chosen the perfect equation to minimize the pain that an act might cause to people. In this perspective the aim of rule utilitarianism is to promote general happiness, “the law is justified by the safety of the people” (Blackburn 77), an example of that would be seatbelt and helmet laws. The reasons why the rules are imposed is to avoid people from making mistakes because they do not know what is best for them, so having the rules has the advantage of making the majority of people

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