j j c smart and utilitarianism
In his essay arguing for and against utilitarianism, J.J.C Smart first outlines the different forms of utilitarianism and then shapes the arguments that have been made both in favor of and against these different entities. In this paper I will describe each type of utilitarianism, as well as come to some conclusions about which separate categories of it can function together. Smart outlines five separate categories of utilitarianism, one of which contains two sub-categories. He first discusses the two main types of utilitarianism, which are act and rule utilitarianism. He describes act-utilitarianism as a “view that the rightness or wrongness of an action is to be judged by the consequences, good or bad, or the action itself.” (Smart, Williams, 1998, pg.9) Rule-utilitarianism Smart describes, “is the view that the rightness or wrongness of an action is to be judged by the goodness and badness of the consequences of a rule that everyone should perform the action in like circumstances.” (Smart, Williams, 1998, pg.9) Both act-utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism can be further defined by stating that act-utilitarians use the rules as general examples to base their decisions on, but not as the ultimate end-all answer. ... Although act-utilitarianism and rule-utilitarianism are separate entities, rule utilitarianism contains two sub-categories. ... ” (Smart, Williams, 1998, pg. ... Just as hedonistic and non-hedonistic utilitarianism can be categorized under rule and act utilitarianism, rule-utilitarianism has been said to “collapse into act-utilitarianism.” (Smart, Williams, 1998, pg. ... Thus we get a new rule of the form ‘do R except in circumstance of the sort C’. ... Thus an adequate rule-utilitarianism would be extensionally equivalent to act-utilitarianism.” (Smart, Williams, 1998, pg 10-11) We could use our poverty stricken family again to explain this.