Is Act Utilitarianism Right Or Wrong

One of the big dilemmas in the philosophical community surrounds which moral theory should determinebe used when determining whether an action is right or wrong. A solution to the problem has long been sought since it involves important aspects of daily life, namely how to judge the moral worth of actions and whether they are acceptable. Furthermore, a main criticism about utilitarian theory regards the way it addresses promises and justice. This criticism must be viewed from both act and rule utilitarian perspectives in order to determine whether either of these theories is a plausible theory of morality. In this paper, I will examine the theory of utilitarianism. Within the examination, I will beginbeing by explaining two situations

Act utilitarianism’s main statement is that some action is morally right if and only if that action produces the best outcome out of all the available actions in that situation. By best outcome, the act utilitarian means that it maximizes the good and minimizes the suffering. If there is a tie, then either action can be picked since they do as least as much good as each other and neither leads to a better outcome. Act utilitarians test individual actions by examining their consequences. For them, general rules are just rules of thumb. They are used in order to avoid always having to estimate probable consequences of an action. For example, in the case of a promise, the rightness or wrongness of keeping the promise depends solely on the consequences. If the consequences of breaking the promise on a particular occasion are bad, then it is better to break the promise; the general rule that one should keep promises must be broken if the consequences of breaking it results in more happiness. In act utilitarianism rules do not really matter. In the end, they only serve as rule of thumb and social institutions which can be used to estimate

They do not believe that the rightness of an action should be tested by evaluating its consequences. Rather, it should be evaluated by considering whether or not it falls under a certain rule. These rules are tested by their consequences which produces the following method for determining the rightness of an action: actions are to be tested by rules and rules are to be tested by consequences. Certain cases exist, however, where an action is to be directly evaluated by its consequences. The first is when an action falls under two different rules, and one rule allows it while the other does not allow it. The second case is when there is no rule whatsoever that dictates the rightness or wrongness of an