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'Rule utilitarianism' is a form of utilitarianism which states that moral actions are those which conform to the rules which lead 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."^[1] For rule utilitarians, the correctness of a rule is determined by the amount of good it brings about when it is followed. In contrast, act utilitarians judge actions in terms of the goodness of their consequences without reference to rules of action.
In his 1861 book ''Utilitarianism'', John Stuart Mill defends the concept of rights 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."^[2] Whether Mill was a rule utilitarian is a matter of controversy;^[3] he 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.²

Contents

See also

References

Further reading

See also

★ Act utilitarianism

★ Two-level utilitarianism

★ Preference utilitarianism

★ John Stuart Mill

★ Peter Singer

★ Richard Brandt

References

1. Moral Philosophy: A Systematic Introduction to Normative Ethics and Meta-ethics, , Richard T., Garner, Macmillan, 1967,
2. Utilitarianism, , John Stuart, Mill, , 1861,
3. Rule Consequentialism

Further reading

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