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Act Utilitarianism Analysis

1237 Words5 Pages

Under the moral theory of act utilitarianism, I will argue that the elements that define it as a moral theory, do not always hold up as a strong theory in its totality when we critically analyse it. I will also point out a few hypothetical situations and possible consequences when implementation of act utilitarianism is followed through. The consequences will be proven to have the potential to undo the utility of happiness for our loved family members, in order to care for strangers we do not have a connection with, which in my opinion is highly immoral.

According to lecture notes ( Weijers & Munn 2016) there are two main forms of utilitarianism, namely act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. Rule utilitarians follow the belief that …show more content…

She is financially struggling and her budget for food per week is $100.00. This mother comes across an advertisement on television for the ‘Save the Children Fund’ that explains, with just one dollar per day she could feed a family of four in a third world country.

According to act utilitarianism her food budget should be given over to the charity, because the utility would be increased tenfold as would the suffering substantially be decreased, ultimately benefiting a greater amount of people then just this one mother and her children.

There are a couple of ways she could address this. On one hand she could give over her families money under act utilitarianism which recognises that these third world countries have equal entitlement to pleasure and happiness and a lot less pain , knowing that it would increase utility to a greater number of people, thus deeming it morally sound to hand over her money.

On the other hand she could keep her money and shop for her own family and not give over her shopping money believing that no matter what the consequence is, there are some actions that should not be done as pointed out in lecture notes for the moral theory deontology( Weijers & Munn 2016) and Ethical Egoism(Rachel & Rachel ?) that believes each person only need worry about their own best …show more content…

To expect otherwise would be to breed a society of uncaring caregivers in our communities, which would most certainly tear at the very heart of the family and a society as a

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