Rule Utilitarianism

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how moral decisions in business are best served by adhering to the ethical code of rule utilitarianism. Rule utilitarianism provides a workable code for businesses, especially in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom financial scandals. It shows how, by adopting rule utilitarianism, businesses can help to prevent serious damage caused by decisions based solely on the consequences of a single act and, instead, allow businesses to focus on ethical rules that ensure the best long-term benefit for society.

From the Paper:

"In essence, ultitarianism argues that an action is morally correct if the consequences of the action have a more favorable than unfavorable impact on everyone involved. Jeremy Bentham is commonly known as the father of utilitarianism, and perhaps known for his description of act utilitarianism. In act utilitarianism, it is morally wrong to commit any act that will result in consequences that are more negative than positive. However, act utilitarianism can lead to some serious moral quandaries, including a seeming over permissiveness of many seemingly morally abhorrent acts. For example, act utilitarianism would allow specific acts of torture to be morally acceptable if the specific outcome of these acts were more good than bad."

More papers on Rule Utilitarianism:

• Analytical Essay # 131596 : "Rule Utilitarianism and the State"
• Term Paper # 59864 : "Rule-Utilitarianism and Act-Utilitarianism"
• Analytical Essay # 138351 : "Rule vs. Act Utilitarianism"

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