The purpose of this essay will be to examine a complex moral case through the lens of the theories of Classical Act Utilitarianism and Rule Consequentialism. The theories will be compared and evaluated based on how they apply to the moral case.
The situation that will ultimately be the basis to compare Classical Act Utilitarianism (AU) and Rule Consequentialism (RC), is the story of Jim. During a trip to South Africa, Jim finds himself to be a little lost and disoriented and in the wrong small town. Jim notices that in the middle of the town’s center square there are 20 Indian tied up against a wall, all in a row and supervised by uniformed men. Jim is able to convince the captain of the uniforms, that he is just visiting the country for study and research. The Captain is very understanding but offers Jim a special guest offer: The Captain intends to kill the twenty men in the courtyard as an example to others who have exhibited ‘rebellious’ behavior. The Captain’s special offer, invites Jim to kill one of the men, but all the other 19 captured men will be released. Or decline and all 20 people die like the Captain originally intended.
Now that parameters have been established for the Jim …show more content…
Meaning the rightness and wrongness of an action is determined by the consequences once again. Rather than appealing to the utility, and overall positive value, RC follows the rules of an ideal moral code. The ideal moral code is not a list of rules that an individual should or should not do, but an idealistic moral code. For example, if you make a promise the right thing to do is keep your promise. In an idealistic world, we would always follow that moral code. For RC, the rightness and wrongness of an action is determined by whether or not it is required or prohibited by an ideal code and that in comparison to other actions it produces at least an equal or greater amount of intrinsic
The situation that will ultimately be the basis to compare Classical Act Utilitarianism (AU) and Rule Consequentialism (RC), is the story of Jim. During a trip to South Africa, Jim finds himself to be a little lost and disoriented and in the wrong small town. Jim notices that in the middle of the town’s center square there are 20 Indian tied up against a wall, all in a row and supervised by uniformed men. Jim is able to convince the captain of the uniforms, that he is just visiting the country for study and research. The Captain is very understanding but offers Jim a special guest offer: The Captain intends to kill the twenty men in the courtyard as an example to others who have exhibited ‘rebellious’ behavior. The Captain’s special offer, invites Jim to kill one of the men, but all the other 19 captured men will be released. Or decline and all 20 people die like the Captain originally intended.
Now that parameters have been established for the Jim …show more content…
Meaning the rightness and wrongness of an action is determined by the consequences once again. Rather than appealing to the utility, and overall positive value, RC follows the rules of an ideal moral code. The ideal moral code is not a list of rules that an individual should or should not do, but an idealistic moral code. For example, if you make a promise the right thing to do is keep your promise. In an idealistic world, we would always follow that moral code. For RC, the rightness and wrongness of an action is determined by whether or not it is required or prohibited by an ideal code and that in comparison to other actions it produces at least an equal or greater amount of intrinsic