A classic utilitarianism scenario is a gunman walking into a classroom and making his intentions to kills everyone in the room (students and teacher) very clear.
If you think about it, utilitarianism could be used as an excuse for bad actions such as killing. Looking at an Example – Murdering a Gunman the greatest good for the greatest number, but they differ in their approaches. Now, act utilitarians and rule utilitarians agree that the overall aim in evaluating actions should be to create the best results possible, i.e. What is the difference between Act and rule Utilitarianism? The main principle of classical utilitarianism that comes from Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill is that we ought to maximize the good, that is, bring about ‘the greatest amount of good for the greatest number‘. Utilitarianism comes from the branch of ethics concerned with doing what is right for the majority of people. But first of all, what is Utilitarianism? What is Utilitarianism?
These are the two main types of utilitarianism that you need to be aware of in ethics. This week, many of you have been asking me the difference between Act and Rule Utilitarianism.