Rule utilitarianism is a form of
utilitarianism
In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals.
Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different chara ...
that says an action is right as it conforms to a rule that leads to the greatest good, or that "the rightness or wrongness of a particular action is a function of the correctness of the rule of which it is an instance".
Philosophers
Richard Brandt
Richard Booker Brandt (17 October 1910 – 10 September 1997) was an American philosopher working in the utilitarian tradition in moral philosophy.
Education and career
Brandt was originally educated at Denison University, a Baptist institution ...
and
Brad Hooker are major proponents of such an approach.
For rule utilitarians, the correctness of a rule is determined by the amount of good it brings about when followed. In contrast,
act utilitarians judge an act in terms of the consequences of that act alone (such as stopping at a red light), rather than judging whether it faithfully adhered to the rule of which it was an instance (such as, "always stop at red lights"). Rule utilitarians argue that following rules that tend to lead to the greatest good will have better consequences overall than allowing exceptions to be made in individual instances, even if better consequences can be demonstrated in those instances.
Mill's formulation
In his 1863 book ''
Utilitarianism
In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals.
Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different chara ...
'',
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...
defends the concept of
rights
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory ...
in terms of utility: "To have a right, then, is, I conceive, to have something which society ought to defend me in the possession of. If the objector goes on to ask, why it ought? I can give him no other reason than general utility."
Whether Mill was a rule utilitarian is a matter of controversy.
This passage from '' Utilitarianism'' seems to suggest that he was:
In the case of abstinences indeed—of things which people forbear to do from moral considerations, though the consequences in the particular case might be beneficial—it would be unworthy of an intelligent agent not to be consciously aware that the action is of a class which, if practiced generally, would be generally injurious, and that this is the ground of the obligation to abstain from it.
But Mill also argues that it is sometimes right to violate general ethical rules:
... justice is a name for certain moral requirements, which, regarded collectively, stand higher in the scale of social utility, and are therefore of more paramount obligation, than any others; though particular cases may occur in which some other social duty is so important, as to overrule any one of the general maxims of justice. Thus, to save a life, it may not only be allowable, but a duty, to steal, or take by force, the necessary food or medicine, or to kidnap, and compel to officiate, the only qualified medical practitioner.
Other things being equal people are happier if their society follows rules so people know what types of behaviour they can expect from others in given situations. Therefore, utilitarians can justify a system that goes, "Keep to the rules unless there is a strong reason for breaking them."
Strong rule utilitarianism
Strong rule utilitarianism (SRU) gives a utilitarian account for the claim that moral rules should be obeyed at all places and times. SRU does not deteriorate into
act utilitarianism like weak rule utilitarianism, but it shares weaknesses with similarly
absolutist moral stances (notably,
deontological
In moral philosophy, deontological ethics or deontology (from Greek: + ) is the normative ethical theory that the morality of an action should be based on whether that action itself is right or wrong under a series of rules and principles, ...
ones). A scenario (or
thought experiment
A thought experiment is a hypothetical situation in which a hypothesis, theory, or principle is laid out for the purpose of thinking through its consequences.
History
The ancient Greek ''deiknymi'' (), or thought experiment, "was the most anc ...
) used to clarify this problem (often attributed to
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...
) posits both
# you know the location of some persons
# a murderer asks you about their location in order to go and kill them.
The moral convention is that lying is wrong, so the strong rule utilitarian says you should reveal their location. A more sophisticated SRU response is that
# the above scenario is very improbable.
# in the majority of situations, telling the truth leads to more trust and happiness.
# if applied universally (à la
Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aest ...
's
categorical imperative
The categorical imperative (german: kategorischer Imperativ) is the central philosophical concept in the deontological moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Introduced in Kant's 1785 '' Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals'', it is a way of eva ...
), the rule against lying would create net utility. This position is most notably argued by
John C. Harsanyi (in an essay included in "Utilitarianism and beyond", edited by A. Sen and B. Williams, Reprint 2010).
Nevertheless, many disagree, claiming that (in this situation) telling the truth would result in needless death, would therefore be immoral, and that this scenario thus provides a
counterexample
A counterexample is any exception to a generalization. In logic a counterexample disproves the generalization, and does so rigorously in the fields of mathematics and philosophy. For example, the fact that "John Smith is not a lazy student" is a ...
contradicting SRU.
Weak rule utilitarianism
Weak rule utilitarianism (WRU) attempts to handle
SRU counterexamples as legitimate exceptions. One such response is
two-level utilitarianism; more systematic WRUs attempt to create sub-rules to handle the exceptions. But as
David Lyons and others have argued, this will necessarily tend to collapse into
act utilitarianism. Rules will require as many sub-rules as there are exceptions, thus many exceptions will make the more-sophisticated rule computationally intractable.
Rational agents
A rational agent or rational being is a person or entity that always aims to perform optimal actions based on given premises and information. A rational agent can be anything that makes decisions, typically a person, firm, machine, or software.
...
will then
satisfice
Satisficing is a decision-making strategy or cognitive heuristic that entails searching through the available alternatives until an acceptability threshold is met. The term ''satisficing'', a portmanteau of ''satisfy'' and ''suffice'', was intro ...
that intractability by seeking outcomes that produce the maximum utility.
[Allen Habib (2008),]
Promises
, in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''SEP'') combines an online encyclopedia of philosophy with peer-reviewed publication of original papers in philosophy, freely accessible to Internet users. It is maintained by Stanford University. E ...
.
See also
*
Act utilitarianism
*
Brad Hooker
*
Guideline
*
Harm principle
The harm principle holds that the actions of individuals should only be limited to prevent harm to other individuals. John Stuart Mill articulated this principle in ''On Liberty'', where he argued that "The only purpose for which power can be rig ...
*
''Prima facie'' right
*
Proportionalism
*
Richard Brandt
Richard Booker Brandt (17 October 1910 – 10 September 1997) was an American philosopher working in the utilitarian tradition in moral philosophy.
Education and career
Brandt was originally educated at Denison University, a Baptist institution ...
*
Rule egoism
*
Thought experiments in ethics
References
Further reading
* Brad Hooker's entry on rule consequentialism in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
* Brad Hooker, ''Ideal Code, Real World'' Oxford University Press, 2000, new edition 2002
Foundations of Morality at the Mises InstituteHazlitt, Henry (1964). ''The Foundations of Morality''. Irvington-on-Hudson,NY: Foundation for Economic Education.
*
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Utilitarianism
Thought experiments in ethics