act utilitarianism
E84419
Act utilitarianism is a moral theory that judges the rightness of each individual action solely by how much overall happiness or utility it produces compared to alternative actions.
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
consequentialist theory
ⓘ
moral theory ⓘ utilitarian theory ⓘ |
| aimsAt | maximizing overall well-being ⓘ |
| allows | breaking moral rules when doing so maximizes utility ⓘ |
| appliedIn |
applied ethics
ⓘ
cost–benefit analysis ⓘ public policy analysis ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
J. J. C. Smart
ⓘ
Jeremy Bentham NERFINISHED ⓘ John Stuart Mill NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| basedOn | principle of utility ⓘ |
| contrastedWith | rule-based moral theories ⓘ |
| contrastsWith | rule utilitarianism ⓘ |
| coreIdea | rightness of an action depends solely on its consequences ⓘ |
| criticizedFor |
demandingness
ⓘ
difficulty of predicting consequences ⓘ ignoring individual rights ⓘ potentially justifying injustice ⓘ time-consuming decision procedures ⓘ |
| decisionProcedure | choose the action with the highest expected utility ⓘ |
| defendedBy |
J. J. C. Smart
ⓘ
Peter Singer ⓘ |
| denies | absolute moral rules ⓘ |
| ethicalType |
maximizing consequentialism
ⓘ
teleological ethics ⓘ |
| evaluates | individual actions ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
maximization of overall happiness
ⓘ
maximization of overall utility ⓘ |
| holdsThat |
an action is right if it produces at least as much utility as any alternative
ⓘ
no action is intrinsically right or wrong independent of consequences ⓘ |
| implies | each person’s happiness counts equally ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Enlightenment rationalism
ⓘ
hedonism ⓘ |
| moralCriterion |
greatest balance of happiness over unhappiness
ⓘ
greatest net utility compared to alternatives ⓘ |
| normativeStatus | normative ethical theory ⓘ |
| opposedBy |
deontological ethics
ⓘ
virtue ethics ⓘ |
| requires |
assessment of consequences for all affected
ⓘ
comparison of available actions ⓘ impartial aggregation of utilities ⓘ |
| scope | all sentient beings affected by an action ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfDevelopment | 19th century ⓘ |
| usesConcept |
impartiality between persons
ⓘ
pleasure and pain ⓘ utility ⓘ |
| variantOf | classical utilitarianism ⓘ |
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.