1. Cost/benefit – quantifiable approach. Maximize positive utilities (benefits)
Against negative utilities (costs).
2. Act utilitarian – “Will the course of action produce more good than any alternative course of action that I could take”?
3. Rule utilitarian – “Would utility be maximized if everyone did the same thing in the same circumstances”? Adoption of commonly accepted rules.
1. COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS:
• Assess the available options
• Assess the costs and benefits of each option for the entire audience affected
• Make the decision that is likely to result in the greatest benefit relative to cost.
2. ACT-UTILITARIANISM:
• Focuses on individual actions, rather than general rules.
• An act is right if it is likely to produce the most good for the most people involved in the particular situation.
• Rules may be broken whenever doing so will produce the most good in a specific situation.
• Happiness is the only ‘intrinsic’ good and all others are ‘instrumental’ goods that serve as the means of happiness.
3. RULE-UTILITARIANISM:
• This regards moral values as primary.
• We should follow the rules and avoid bribes, even when those acts do not have the best consequences in a particular situation, because the general practice of following rules and not bribing produce the most overall good
• Rules should be considered in sets called ‘moral codes’. A moral code is justified when followed, would maximize the public good more than alternative codes would.
