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This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available
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Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT ( talk) 13:21, 16 January 2022 (UTC)
I've done some significant copyediting of the page, as well as making a few important editorial changes. The page had been marked as needing additional citations, and it turns out that most of the content was plagiarized from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. In the spots where I've retained ideas of IEP, I've rewritten the text from scratch. The editorial changes include: (1) Offering a more precise definition of AU. The existing definition conflated the question of a criterion of rightness with the question of the decision procedure. (See, e.g., http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consequentialism/#WhiConActVsExpCon.) (2) Removing all references to "summary rules" (e.g., rules of thumb) and their role in AU. There was some disagreement further down the talk page about how they should be handled. Since I didn't think the current text explained them very well, I thought I'd just remove that text. I think that issue might best be handled in a new subsection. Davidmorrow ( talk) 05:07, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
Act Utilitarianism and Rule Utilitarianism are both very small and have limited potential, though the utilitarianism article itself is very large. As a compromise I suggest we merge these two articles into a single article Act and rule utilitarianism. (I'm not sure if they are both normally capitalized or not, getting that consistent across the articles is also a consideration.) Richard001 07:35, 16 February 2007 (UTC)
merge now, seperate them later. deal. ? Spencerk 04:19, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Merge seems unnecessary to me; people are likely to want to read about one or the other, and may appreciate a distinct article on each. I agree much more material should be added as well, which I'll try to work on. Mackan79 18:05, 11 May 2007 (UTC)
The differences between Act and Rule Utilitarianism is substantial as well as their problems. Rule Utilitariansm addresses the general objections given towards Act Utilitarianism, but it has its own propblems. These should be outlined seperately, otherwise there may be confusion between the two.
On Talk:Rule_utilitarianism I explained a persistent confusion that I'll repeat briefly here. It is simply false to say, as this article does, that "Act utilitarianism makes no appeals to general rules". Of course it does; no one, least of all a utilitarian, would know what to do without general rules. "Maximize utility" is a general rule. "Killing people almost never maximizes utility, so don't do it except in the gravest of situations" is a general rule. As utilitarians like Mill and Hare have always insisted, such rules are essential to utilitarian calculation, indeed pretty much any ethical reasoning; rejection of this leads one into pure spontaneous intuitionism. Rather, act utilitarians believe that we should perform actions that maximize utility, given the world as we find it, period; rule utilitarians believe we should act in accordance with those rules which are such that, if everybody in the world followed them, utility would be at least as high as it would be under any alternate set of rules. This may appeal to those who like ideal theory; but as has often been pointed out (by JJC Smart, David Lyons) it can lead to non-maximization of utility, and even utter disaster, in a world where not everyone is playing by the same rules (i.e., the real one we are always likely to live in).-- ScottForschler ( talk) 13:53, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
I disagree, and i feel you are redefining the terms here. Or rather your version of act utilitarianism is sort of a "soft/moderate act utilitarianism" and your version of rule utilitarianism is a "hard/extreme rule utilitariansim".
its howdy doody time !!! ( talk) 07:04, 27 August 2008 (UTC)
Sorry to hear that your feelings are at variance with standard definitions of these terms, and you wish to instead talk about "soft/moderate" versions, terms which are vague and not used in the philosophical literature to mean anything specific in this context. I have edited some of the relevant sentences, which only partially helps this frankly weak article. ScottForschler ( talk) 01:01, 25 September 2018 (UTC)
Which now says:
It's a) unreferenced and b) is not an actual problem. Taking the negative impact of unpredictability into account is a necessary part of act utilitarianism, so all it's really saying is "You may find it difficult to take everything into consideration". If we want to list everything that needs to be taken into account for Act Utilitarianism, we're going to be here a while. - Richfife ( talk) 20:43, 25 July 2011 (UTC)
A common (practically epidemic) problem with examples of Act Utilitarianism that they leave the actor out of the pleasure / pain equation. The one cited is particularly bad. - Richfife ( talk) 00:20, 13 June 2013 (UTC)
![]() | This ![]() It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available
on the course page.
Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT ( talk) 13:21, 16 January 2022 (UTC)
I've done some significant copyediting of the page, as well as making a few important editorial changes. The page had been marked as needing additional citations, and it turns out that most of the content was plagiarized from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. In the spots where I've retained ideas of IEP, I've rewritten the text from scratch. The editorial changes include: (1) Offering a more precise definition of AU. The existing definition conflated the question of a criterion of rightness with the question of the decision procedure. (See, e.g., http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consequentialism/#WhiConActVsExpCon.) (2) Removing all references to "summary rules" (e.g., rules of thumb) and their role in AU. There was some disagreement further down the talk page about how they should be handled. Since I didn't think the current text explained them very well, I thought I'd just remove that text. I think that issue might best be handled in a new subsection. Davidmorrow ( talk) 05:07, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
Act Utilitarianism and Rule Utilitarianism are both very small and have limited potential, though the utilitarianism article itself is very large. As a compromise I suggest we merge these two articles into a single article Act and rule utilitarianism. (I'm not sure if they are both normally capitalized or not, getting that consistent across the articles is also a consideration.) Richard001 07:35, 16 February 2007 (UTC)
merge now, seperate them later. deal. ? Spencerk 04:19, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
Merge seems unnecessary to me; people are likely to want to read about one or the other, and may appreciate a distinct article on each. I agree much more material should be added as well, which I'll try to work on. Mackan79 18:05, 11 May 2007 (UTC)
The differences between Act and Rule Utilitarianism is substantial as well as their problems. Rule Utilitariansm addresses the general objections given towards Act Utilitarianism, but it has its own propblems. These should be outlined seperately, otherwise there may be confusion between the two.
On Talk:Rule_utilitarianism I explained a persistent confusion that I'll repeat briefly here. It is simply false to say, as this article does, that "Act utilitarianism makes no appeals to general rules". Of course it does; no one, least of all a utilitarian, would know what to do without general rules. "Maximize utility" is a general rule. "Killing people almost never maximizes utility, so don't do it except in the gravest of situations" is a general rule. As utilitarians like Mill and Hare have always insisted, such rules are essential to utilitarian calculation, indeed pretty much any ethical reasoning; rejection of this leads one into pure spontaneous intuitionism. Rather, act utilitarians believe that we should perform actions that maximize utility, given the world as we find it, period; rule utilitarians believe we should act in accordance with those rules which are such that, if everybody in the world followed them, utility would be at least as high as it would be under any alternate set of rules. This may appeal to those who like ideal theory; but as has often been pointed out (by JJC Smart, David Lyons) it can lead to non-maximization of utility, and even utter disaster, in a world where not everyone is playing by the same rules (i.e., the real one we are always likely to live in).-- ScottForschler ( talk) 13:53, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
I disagree, and i feel you are redefining the terms here. Or rather your version of act utilitarianism is sort of a "soft/moderate act utilitarianism" and your version of rule utilitarianism is a "hard/extreme rule utilitariansim".
its howdy doody time !!! ( talk) 07:04, 27 August 2008 (UTC)
Sorry to hear that your feelings are at variance with standard definitions of these terms, and you wish to instead talk about "soft/moderate" versions, terms which are vague and not used in the philosophical literature to mean anything specific in this context. I have edited some of the relevant sentences, which only partially helps this frankly weak article. ScottForschler ( talk) 01:01, 25 September 2018 (UTC)
Which now says:
It's a) unreferenced and b) is not an actual problem. Taking the negative impact of unpredictability into account is a necessary part of act utilitarianism, so all it's really saying is "You may find it difficult to take everything into consideration". If we want to list everything that needs to be taken into account for Act Utilitarianism, we're going to be here a while. - Richfife ( talk) 20:43, 25 July 2011 (UTC)
A common (practically epidemic) problem with examples of Act Utilitarianism that they leave the actor out of the pleasure / pain equation. The one cited is particularly bad. - Richfife ( talk) 00:20, 13 June 2013 (UTC)