Pros And Cons Of Act Utilitarianism

There are twelve different versions of utilitarianism. Six versions of act utilitarianism and six versions of rule utilitarianism. Act utilitarianism is if a person’s act is morally right, but it is only right if it results/ produces the best possible outcome for that situation. While rule utilitarianism is that an action is right as long as it conforms to a rule which is for the greatest good. Generic utilitarians do not have set answer for what is intrinsically good or bad. They think that the best or right decision to make is whichever holds the most positive result. While the hedonistic utilitarians are set to the view that only happiness/unhappiness is intrinsically good/bad. They think that the right thing to do is whichever brings the …show more content…
Act utilitarianism are things that are in the instant, situational things and things that bring happiness. Actual consequence generic act utilitarianism aren’t just actions that will bring you only joy or pleasure. You can still be in a bad situation and choose the option that will cause you the least amount of pain and the least amount of bad consequences. It looks at the intrinsic goodness/ badness of situations/ things. Intrinsic goodness are things that are worthwhile because there are good in themselves that are not good because they lead to other good things. Same thing with things that are intrinsically bad, they are bad in themselves not because they lead to other bad things. When trying to decide what action to do, actual consequence generic act utilitarians believe that we should do the thing or side with the thing that is the most morally right, we should do the thing that will bring us the most happiness/pleasure or the least amount of unhappiness with the least amount of consequences. They believe that we should do whatever is the most morally right thing to …show more content…
Then one day the Nazi’s come to your door and ask if you have any jews or if any are hiding in your house. It’s not right to lie but it’s also not right to be truthful and give the jews up just so you don’t feel bad about lying because giving the jews up is a lot worse than lying about having them. So you lie and say that there are no jews in your house and you have not seen any. In this situation actual consequence generic act utilitarians evaluate the situation in the moment and think of all the consequences, the intrinsically good/bad things, and all the morals they should be following. All the actual consequences that could happen if they lie is that the Nazi’s could choose not to believe them and come in anyway and find the jew’s they were hiding and killing/ torture everyone, they could just kill the jew’s or take them and send the harborers to a jail. If they choose not to lie, the Nazi’s would still come in and take the jew’s and could kill everyone or just take them and leave. The intrinsic good in this is that they are helping hiding the jew’s just because they finding that helping others is good in themselves and it is morally right to help save innocent people that have no valid reason to be treated like the. The intrinsic bad is the Nazi’s and Hitler for starting the