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rule utilitarianism

Also called restricted or indirect utilitarianism.

Version of utilitarianism which says (in its main formulation) that our duty is not to aim for that act which will produce in fact the best overall consequences (because of the impossibility or impracticability of predicting these) but to follow that rule which would have the best consequences if generally followed.

Objections include: the apparent pointlessness of mechanically following a rule which on this occasion will clearly not have the best results; the pointlessness or counterproductiveness of following a rule which would be the best if everyone followed it but which one knows not everyone will; and the difficulty in the end of even distinguishing rule utilitarianism from act utilitarianism.

Source:
B A Brody, ‘The Equivalence of Act and Rule Utilitarianism’, Philosophical Studies (1967)

Table of Contents

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    • 2.4 Utilitarianism (Dover Thrift Editions)
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    • 2.8 Utilitarianism and Cooperation
    • 2.9 Ethics 101: From Altruism and Utilitarianism to Bioethics and Political Ethics, an Exploration of the Concepts of Right and Wrong (Adams 101)
    • 2.10 Kant and Parfit: The Groundwork of Morals (Routledge Studies in Ethics and Moral Theory)

Related:

  • Act utilitarianism
  • utilitarianism
  • preference utilitarianism
  • consequentialism
  • golden rule

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    nominalism

    indeterminacy of reference and translation

    subjectivist theories of probability

    truth theory

    probabilism

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