Difference Between Act Utilitarianism

Act utilitarianism is a form of utilitarianism that says that an action is right if and only if it produces the greatest amount of happiness, and wrong if it produces more unhappiness than happiness than any other possible outcome. Act utilitarianism says that when faced with a situation one must look at the possible consequences, and act upon the one that you think will bring the most amount of happiness. The problem with act utilitarianism is as follows; this view will justify actions such as lying, and breaking the law in some situations if the outcome bring the greatest amount of happiness. If one is on a situation where you have to kill one person in order to safe 10 others, act utilitarianism would say that on this situation it is ok to kill that one person because it would bring the greatest overall happiness. …show more content…
For examples, if you are a doctor and have patient that has a disease that will end his life, rule utilitarianism would say that you must tell your patient that he is dying because there is a generalized rule of telling the truth, and you must follow it, but on the other hand act utilitarianism would say that lying is the best option on this situation. The only intrinsic value for these theories is happiness. The difference between act and rule utilitarianism is that act utilitarianism first looks at the consequences of an act, and decides which is the better option depending on which one brings the greatest amount of happiness. Rule utilitarianism first look at the consequences of all the possible rules to follow, and then they follow the rule that leads to the greatest