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Act utilitarianism is an ethical theory that claims “the idea that the rightness of actions depends solely on the relative good produced by individual actions.” An act, according to this ethical theory, is deemed ethical if the action produces more good consequences than bad for the greatest amount of people involved in the situation. The theory accounts for the maximum net amount of utiles for everyone considered.
This ethical theory is derived from Utilitarianism, which means the greatest good, everyone considered, however, differs from a separate branch of utilitarianism termed, rule utilitarianism. Rule utilitarianism states that it “avoids judging rightness by specific acts and focuses instead on rules governing categories of acts.” In this case, an act is deemed ethical if by following a specific rule consistently, it would allow the greatest happiness for everyone involved. A clear example that sets these two ethical theories apart is cheating on an exam. In the case of act utilitarianism, a series of questions about the end product of maximum happiness would need to be answered.
We ask if the student needs the information for future references, what the consequences of being caught would be, and what the consequences of failure would mean for the student. Would they produce the greatest amount of happiness or would they produce more bad consequences? If the result proves to be more beneficial to the student, the action of cheating is ethical. However, in the same case, rule utilitarianism does not consider the possible outcomes of the students cheating but considers the rules broken and what the consequences of breaking this rule would be. If the student cheats and breaks the rule then there would be no value in student exams. If cheating was a rule everyone broke there would be daily consequences including people in practices they are unqualified for and no measure of student comprehension of the material.
In this case, rule utilitarianism states that cheating is always wrong because it breaks a rule that keeps bad consequences from occurring, therefore even in the distant future, more good consequences occur from a student not cheating on an exam. While act utilitarianism may permit the action of cheating because it allows the maximum amount of utiles produced for the student, rule utilitarianism finds the act of cheating unjustifiable because it causes dangerous consequences for the student and people indirectly involved with her cheating.
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