Theories
...through the 20th century. Also see John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 1973. Utilitarianism remains an important ingredient in government and business decision-making.
THE PRINCIPLE: UTILITY
Act in the way that you think will produce the best consequences for everyone who is affected.
It does not matter who is benefited or harmed, as long as the total good/benefit/pleasure outweighs the total bad/harm/pain. That is, an act is not wrong because it will benefit you and harm others, nor is it either right or wrong because it will harm you while benefiting others. The person making the judgment by the utilitarian method tries to objectively judge the consequences for everyone who is affected, and decide if the overall consequences are good or bad. He is expected to make this judgment from a neutral point of view, without regard to his particular position in the situation being analyzed.
Bentham's Hedonic Calculus was a mathematical decision-making tool that tried to "put a number on" moral decisions. It took into consideration how many people are affected, how much they are affected, how likely it is they will be affected in a certain way, and how far in the future this effect will probably occur. All of these factors enter into the calculation.
VARIATIONS: (See ET-3A) ACT & RULE UTILITARIANISM
Rule Utiliarianism modifies the original Act Utilitarianism in an important way. It asks us to judge the consequences of there being a certain RULE, rather than to judge the consequences of a particular act. It deals with the problem in which a certain act might seem to have good consequences but also set a bad precedent, with bad consequences in the future because of the precedent.
Rule utilitarianism is similar in some respects to Kantian theory, because it asks, What would it be like if people, as a rule, where acting in...
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