Act & Rule Utilitarianism

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Act Utilitarianism

Jeremy Bentham’s act utilitarianism focuses on the consequences of an action, not the intention behind it or the moral obligation a human has to others and the world around them.

Principles of act utilitarianism

Act utilitarianism avoids moral rules, such as the ten commandments, because it is based solely upon the consequences of actions. Moral rules do not apply in this version of utilitarianism.
If an action produces the greatest happiness for the largest amount of people, then a moral rule does not matter.
This means act utilitarianism is known for looking at each situation based on its individuality.

Happiness for largest majority

Act utilitarianism focuses on promoting happiness and pleasure over pain for the largest majority of people.

Criticisms: pleasure can be bad

Act utilitarianism has a few weaknesses which caused John Stuart Mill to devise rule utilitarianism.
- There are certain situations in which pleasure can actually be bad and pain can be a good thing.
- The hedonic calculus can be used in a bad way to simply achieve what people want rather than looking at what is actually good for the majority.

Criticism: family attachments

Bentham says we need to look past family attachments and this shouldn’t come into our decision process.
However, this is impossible as humans do have an obligation to their family and it would be very difficult to not take this into account when making a decision.

Rule Utilitarianism

Rule utilitarianism was devised by John Stuart Mill. Rule utilitarianism focuses on the application of moral rules to decision-making and how these rules can produce the greatest happiness.

Rejection of hedonic calculus

Mill rejected the hedonic calculus as he felt it took too long to use it and it could be misused.

Mill's qualitative approach

Whilst Bentham used a quantitative approach to pleasure and happiness - the amount of pleasure - Mill applied a qualitative approach to his version of utilitarianism - some pleasures are better than others.

Higher and lower pleasures

Mill divided pleasures into sections: higher and lower pleasures.
- Things like philosophy are higher pleasures, whilst drinking alcohol and eating out in expensive restaurants are lower pleasures.
Mill believed humans should not be aiming for individual pleasures, but for the whole happiness of societies and communities.

'Harm principle'

Additionally, Mill added a ‘harm principle’ on to his version of utilitarianism.
He stated that if an action involved harming another person, it was wrong.
Applying this harm principle to utilitarianism makes the hedonic calculus more ethical and prevents people from using it in a non-moral way.

Act vs rule utilitarianism

Bentham focussed on analysing each individual act and the amount of pleasure for the most amount of people.
Mill focussed on applying general rules to decisions and trying to produce the greatest amount of happiness for the whole of human society as opposed to pleasure for the majority.