Pros And Cons Of Rule Utilitarianism

Because rule utilitarianism relies on moral rules to determine the permissibility of actions, it has the resources to avoid the problems act utilitarianism faces concerning individual rights by establishing rules that prohibit infringement of individual rights. For instance, one should not enslave others because, in most instances, slavery has more negative outcomes than not enslaving others. Therefore if not enslaving others was a rule, rule utilitarianism would consider all slavery immoral, regardless if individual cases of slavery would yield more good outcomes. In more instances than not, violating individual rights results in a lower utility, therefore, the majority of moral rules align with our individual rights and intuitive moral verdicts. Thus, rule utilitarianism has the resources to prohibit the problems that act utilitarianism faces concerning infringement of individual rights. Although rule utilitarianism is better than act utilitarianism in this regard, it faces other problems regarding exceptional scenarios. According to rule utilitarianism, there are certain moral rules we are obligated to follow like to always tell the truth. In most situations following moral rules maximizes good outcomes, however in certain scenarios this is not necessarily the case. A possible …show more content…
Like act utilitarianism, it appealing because it maximizes good outcomes, however, it does so by establishing strict moral rules. By establishing moral rules, rule utilitarianism avoids the conflicts act utilitarianism faces with individual rights and the difficulty of calculating utility. It aligns with our intuitive moral verdicts more often and prevents people from making errors in moral judgements, therefore, rule utilitarianism is the better utilitarianistic moral