Rule Utilitarianism: Definition & Principles

Rule Utilitarianism

• Rule utilitarianism is an ethical theory developed because of the weaknesses of act utilitarianism
• It is based on the principle of utility
• Rule utilitarianism suggests we should adopt moral rules that, if universally followed, would maximize overall happiness
• Proponents include John Stuart Mill, though this is debated

Act vs Rule Utilitarianism

• A rule utilitarian applies the principle of utility to moral rules
• An act utilitarian applies it to individual moral actions

Rule Utilitarianism vs Kantianism

• Both rule utilitarianism and Kantianism focus on rules, which may often overlap
• The theories derive moral rules differently
• Rule utilitarianism chooses rules based on whether universal adoption increases happiness
• Kantianism follows rules aligned with the Categorical Imperative
• Rule utilitarians focus on the consequences of actions
• Kantians focus on the will motivating the action

Scenario: Evaluating Nachi Using Rule Utilitarianism

• Nachi is a worm that exploited the same Windows security hole as the Blaster worm in 2003
• Nachi's purpose was benevolent
• It targeted computers vulnerable to Blaster, removed Blaster, downloaded a Microsoft patch, and sought out other vulnerable PCs
• A key question surrounds whether releasing Nachi was morally right or wrong.

Analysis of the Nachi Scenario

• An appropriate moral rule might be: "If I can write and release a helpful worm that improves computer security, I should do so."
• Benefits of universal adoption include automatic removal of network vulnerabilities for those not keeping systems updated
• Harms of universal adoption include proliferation of worms designed to eradicate harmful worms, contributing to extra network traffic
• The Nachi worm disabled Diebold ATM networks at two financial institutions
• Another potential negative consequence involves potential harm to computers by supposedly helpful worms, which can contain bugs
• System administrators may be burdened, as it is not immediately obvious whether a new worm is harmful or beneficial
• Harms caused by the universal adoption of this moral rule appear to outweigh the benefits
• Releasing the Nachi worm is morally wrong

Case for Rule Utilitarianism

• Not every moral decision requires performing the utilitarian calculus, saving time and effort
• Exceptional situations do not overthrow moral rules
• Rule utilitarianism can resolve dilemmas, such as keeping a promise to A while a broken promise could produce more units of good for B
• Rule utilitarians would keep the promise to A, promoting long-term benefits of promise-keeping
• Rule utilitarianism solves the problem of moral luck, focusing on the typical result of an action
• Sending flowers to the hospital is, therefore, a good action in Rule Utilitarianism
• Rule utilitarianism reduces bias by forcing one to consider if an action is okay for everyone in similar circumstances
• It appeals to a wide cross section of society
• An action is justifiable if allowing that action would, as a rule, bring about greater net happiness than forbidding that action, according to Bernard Gert

Case against Utilitarianism in General

• Utilitarianism faces criticisms shared by both act and rule utilitarianism
• It forces the use of a single scale or measure to evaluate completely different consequences
  • All consequences must be put into the same units to perform the utilitarian calculus
  • This can force utilitarians to quantify the value of human life in certain circumstances

Criticism of Utilitarianism

• It ignores the problem of an unjust distribution of good consequences, focusing solely on the total amount of happiness produced
• The calculus determines the second course of action may be superior even i one action results in every member of a society receiving 100 units of good and another course of action results in half the members of society receiving 201 units of good each, with the other half receiving nothing
• A possible response aims to promote the greatest good of the greatest number and distribute the good as widely as possible, adding a principle of distributive justice
• The proposed philosophy is not internally consistent, because there are times when the two principles conflict

Social Contract Theory

• The invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent looting raise questions about governmental authority and control
• Social contract theory addresses such questions

Key Concepts of Social Contract Theory

• Thomas Hobbes (1603–1679) argued in Leviathan that without rules and enforcement, people would not create value due to uncertainty of keeping it
• Hobbes believed life would be "solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short"
• Cooperation is essential and possible only with mutually agreed-upon guidelines
• Moral rules are then necessary for gaining the benefits of social living
• Hobbes argues that everyone in a civilized society has implicitly agreed to: moral rules and a government to enforce the rules, which he calls the social contract

Rousseau's Contribution

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) argued in The Social Contract that legitimate authority must be based on covenants since no man has natural authority
• Rousseau identified the critical problem as finding a form of association that guarantees safety and property while ensuring individual freedom
• The community determines rules, and members must obey them because no one is above the rules
• This prevents the community from enacting bad rules, as everyone is in the same situation and avoids putting unfair burdens on themselves

Rationalizing Selfish Behavior

• Individuals may rationalize selfish behavior despite agreeing with social contract theory
• In order for the social contract to function, society must provide not only a system of laws but a system of enforcing the laws as well

Moral Quality

• Rousseau posits that living in a civil society gives actions a moral quality absent in a state of nature
• Duty and reason replace physical impulse and inclination

Summary of Social Contract Theory Based on James Rachels

• Morality consists in the set of rules, governing how people are to treat one another, that rational people will agree to accept, for their mutual benefit, on the condition that others follow those rules as well

Kantianism vs. Social Contract Theory

• Both assume universal moral rules derived through a rational process
• Kantianism: Right to act according to a moral rule if it can be universalized
• Social Contract Theory: Right to act according to a moral rule if rational people accept it as binding for the community's benefit

Rights and Duties

• Hobbes, Locke, and others believed in certain rights (life, liberty, property), and some add privacy
• Rights correspond to duties, with rights obligating specific actions from others
• Negative rights can be guaranteed by non-interference (ex: free expression)
• Positive rights obligate others to act on one's behalf (ex: free education)
• Rights can be absolute (guaranteed without exception) or limited (restricted based on circumstances)

Rawls's Theory of Justice

• Social contract theory acknowledges the harm caused by concentrated wealth and power
• John Rawls (1921–2002) proposed the two principles that extend the social contract to an unequal distribution of wealth and power

Rawls's Two Principles of Justice

• Each person may claim a "fully adequate" number of basic rights and liberties
• Examples include freedom of thought, speech, association, the right to safety, and property ownership
• Any social and economic inequalities must satisfy two criteria
• Inequalities must be associated with positions in society that everyone has a fair and equal opportunity to assume
• Inequalities must be to the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged members of society (the difference principle)

Evaluating Social Contract Theory Through Example

• Bill, a DVD rental store owner, sells customer profiles to mail-order companies, raising privacy concerns
• Analysis using social contract theory involves considering the rights of Bill, his customers, and mail-order companies
• The morality revolves around whether Bill violated his customers' privacy rights and whether both customer and Bill have equal rights to the transaction information

Cases for Social Contract Theory

• Framed in the language of rights, appealing to individualistic cultures
• Explains rational self-interest in the absence of a common agreement, using the gasoline shortage example
• Explains why governments may deprive some people of some rights (punishment for crimes)
• Explains why civil disobedience can be the morally right decision, referencing the lunch counter sit-ins of the 1960s

Cases Against Social Contract Theory

• None of us signed the social contract meaning it is not a real contract
• Social contract agrees are hypothetical and non-historical
• Some actions are characterized in multiple ways, and social contract theory shares this problem with Kantianism
• It does not explain how to solve a moral problem when the analysis reveals conflicting rights
• It may be unjust to those unable to uphold their side of the contract, such as those unable to follow moral rules

Virtue Ethics

• Criticized among some moral philosophers, including Kantianism, utilitarianism, and social contract theory
• Virtue ethics accounts for moral education, wisdom, family and social relationships, and the role of emotions
• Virtue ethics can be traced back to ancient Greece
• Arete refers to reaching one's highest potential

Aristotle on Virtue

• Differentiates between intellectual and moral virtues
• Intellectual: Reasoning and truth
• Moral: Habits or dispositions formed through repetition of virtuous actions
• Emphasizes that focus is on the moral virtues

Moral Virtue

• A deep-seated character trait
• An honest person will tell the truth as a matter of course and be uncomfortable with deceitfulness
• Good people consistently do what is right, making it second nature
• Not simply a disposition to act, but also to feel
• What someone pleases them and what bothers them can influence character

Examples of Virtue

• Courage needs an ability to moderate fear
• Young Boy Scout encouraged to "do a good turn daily" embodies virtue
• Virtue is achieved once scoutmaster compliments are no longer the source of motivation, but helping others has become second nature
• Benevolence

Virtue and Exercise

• Those who possess virtue can fail to exercise it
• When someone doesn’t show up to meetings, others will recognize she may have had reason not to

Summary of Virtue Ethics

• Correct action that a virtuous person who acts well in character would do in the same circumstances
• Virtuous people will possess and live out their virtues
• Virtues are those character traits humans need in order to flourish and be truly happy
• This is dependent on culture, but virtues include honesty, justice, and loyalty
• Aristotle: 2 Vices can be associated with a virtue
• Virtue of courage: middle ground between cowardice (excess fear), Rashness (deficiency of fear)
• Friendliness: somewhere between quarrelsomeness (being too critical), Obsequiousness (giving in too easily)
• Actions: Kantinanism and social contract theory
• Consequence: utilitarianism
• A good person does "the right thing at the right time for the right reason"
• Moral decision making can not be reduced to set of rules
• Moral wisdom/discernment takes presedence over any rule

Virtues vs Action

• Virtue ethics emphasizes virtues over obligations, rights, or consequences
• Kantianism: stealing is wrong because the person doing the stealing is not treating his or her victims as ends in themselves
• Rule utilitarianism: stealing is wrong because the long-term consequences of everybody stealing all the time would produce more harm than good
• Virtue ethics: stealing to satisfy a selfish desire is wrong because it disrupts one's acquisition of the virtue of honesty

Other Considerations for Virtues

• Personal relationships can be morally relevant to decision making
• Utilitarianism, Kantianism, and social contract theory require that we're to completely impartial and treat all human beings as equal
• It emphasizes moral wisdom increases over time
• Virtue ethics recognizes that our moral decision-making skills develop over time
• Ethical wisdom is an intellectual virtue that also takes time to develop. We can ask someone "older and wiser" when they truly want to do the right thing and feel uncertain about the best course of action.
• There are no irresolvable moral dilemmas

Importance of Emotions

• Virtue ethics recognizes the important role that emotions play in living a moral life
• Virtuous people do things at the right time for the right reasons
• Feel satisfied when making good decisions
• Deeply impacted when faced with difficult decisions

Cases Against Virtue Ethics

• 1: Different people may have quite different conceptions of human flourishing
• 2: Virtue ethics cannot be used to guide government policy.
• 3: Virtue ethics undermine attempts to hold people responsible for their bad actions (People are not born virtuous, it must be acquired over time)

Comparing Workable Ethical Theories

• Divine command theory, ethical egoism, Kantianism, act utilitarianism, rule utilitarianism, social contract theory, and virtue ethics share the viewpoint that moral good and moral precepts are objective
• Morality has an existence outside the human mind
• Ethical egoism, Kantianism, utilitarianism, social contract theory, and virtue ethics is the assumption that ethical decision making is a rational process
• Kantianism, utilitarianism, social contract theory, and virtue ethics explicitly take other people into consideration when defining what makes an action morally correct, which sets these theories apart from ethical egoism
• Kantianism, act utilitarianism, rule utilitarianism, social contract theory, and virtue ethics are the most workable

Morality Versus Rule Based Ethics

• An act utilitarian considers the consequences of the action, computing the total change in utility to determine if an action is right or wrong
• Kantianism, rule utilitarianism, and social contract theory are rule based
• Kantian relies on the Categorical Imperative
• Adherent of social contract theory considers whether rational people would agree to accept the rule
• Everyone must agree to this to benefit as a whole

Agent Focus

• Instead of worrying about results, virtue ethics focuses on the agent
• Assess whether the action taken by an agent in a particular situation is someone that is characteristic of a virtuous person

Morality of Breaking the Law

• What is moral and what is legal are not identical
• Illegal action may be the right thing to do
• Violating legal action (copy CD contain copyright music and give to a friend)

Social Contract Theory Perspective

• Everyone ought to bear certain burdens/receive certain benefits
• We have prima facie to obey the law
• From the point of view, then it wrong to give to a friend of CD containing copyright music (violates legal action)
• Desire to do something nice for friend is not overriding moral concern

Kantian Perspective

• We need to able to possess objects
• Must respect similar of everyone else meets is property rights
• Violates property rights (failing to fulfill your member of civil society)
• IT IS WRONG TO COPY CD

Rule Utilitarian Perspective

• What's the consequences if people are ignoring laws whenever they chose?
• Breaking the law: more harms than benefits
• Adopt the moral rule "Obey the law"

Act Utilitarian Perspective

• It is possible to conceive of situations where the benefits of breaking a lay are greater than the hams (Copy of copyrighted music for friend while waiting to stay quiet w months.
• Benefits outweighs hams
• No consequences so the total benefit is $0
• Making a copy of cd giving in a specialized friend is he right thing to do
• It would be wrong to extrapolate from this particular case and conclude that an act utilitarian analysis would always determine CD copying to be morally acceptable

Conclusion

• If violating code can not be decided morally except under specific circumstances
• Need to adopt moral rule "obey laws"