Critisism for Rule and Act Utilitarianism - 1155 Words

â€Å"Utilitarianism is the view that the supreme principle of morality is to act so as to produce as much happiness as possible, each person counting equally† (Mill, 114). By ‘happiness’, this includes anything that is pleasurable and free of pain. Simply put, utilitarianism is the theory that an action is right, as long as it produces the greatest good for the most number of people (Peetush). The central point to this theory is that one must consider every consequence before taking any action. There are two classical forms of utilitarianism; rule utilitarianism and act utilitarianism. â€Å"Rule utilitarianism is the idea that an act is right if and only if it is required by a rule that is itself a member of a set of rules whose acceptance would†¦show more content†¦Thus, by this reasoning, what makes an act right or wrong is only the consequence and whether or not it results in happiness. However, this is completely implausible. This would mean that someone could go around killing others as long as the consequences brought about happiness for them .Surely, many would agree that this is not the case and the actions should be judged as right or wrong, not just the end goals. This also ties in with the integrity objection. According to the integrity objection, â€Å"utilitarianism violates personal integrity by commanding that we violate our most central and deeply held principles† (Pojman, 130). An example would be Bernard William’s case with Jim and Indians. Jim is exploring a South American town when he meets a local warlord who’s captured some native protestors and are about to be killed. Jim is faced with the decision to either kill one of the protestors himself and have the others let go or he can refuse to kill the one but then the warlord will kill all of them himself. If Jim were a utilitarian he would be morally obligated to kill even if his set of ethics tells him there is something wrong with doin g so. Nevertheless, his ethical approach would force him to violate his personal integrity. â€Å"Briefly, William’s idea is that â€Å"utilitarianism, congenitally, cannot hope to