It has been argued that rule utilitarianism collapses into act utilitarianism, because for any given rule, in the case where breaking the rule produces more utility, the rule can be refined by the addition of a sub-rule that handles cases like the exception.
22.
"' Act utilitarianism "'is a utilitarian theory of ethics which states that a person's act is morally right if and only if it produces at least as much happiness as any other act that the person could perform at that time.
23.
Act utilitarianism states that in all cases the morally right action is the one which produces the most pleasure, whereas rule utilitarianism states that the morally right action is the one that is in accordance with a moral rule whose general observance would create the most happiness.
24.
Adams concludes that " right action, by act-utilitarian standards, and right motivation, by motive-utilitarian standards, are incompatible in some cases . " The necessity of this conclusion is rejected by Feldman proposes a variant of act utilitarianism that results in there being no conflict between it and motive utilitarianism.
25.
One of Smart's two entries in the Philosophical Lexicon refers to his approach to the consequences of act utilitarianism : to " outsmart " an opponent is " to embrace the conclusion of one's opponent's reductio ad absurdum argument . " This move is more commonly called " biting the bullet ".
26.
Rosen warns that descriptions of utilitarianism can bear " little resemblance historically to utilitarians like Bentham and J . S . Mill " and can be more " a crude version of act utilitarianism conceived in the twentieth century as a straw man to be attacked and rejected . " It is a mistake to think that Bentham is not concerned with rules.
27.
In ethics, Norcross defends a version of act utilitarianism known as " scalar utilitarianism ", which is the theory that there are no right or wrong actions, only better or worse actions ranked along a continuum from the action ( or actions ) that contributes most to overall utility to the action ( or actions ) that contributes the least.
28.
What seems extra surprising to me is that there seems to be a close analogy between this and the philosophical issues of act utilitarianism ( the " transcontinental congress " methods ) and rule utilitarianism ( the land hemisphere method ); there are different ways of trying to decide on the " true " center depending on exactly how the " greater good " is defined . talk ) 06 : 11, 28 January 2011 ( UTC)
