We have shown that classical utilitarianism runs counter to many of our dearest common-sense moral views. It is both too demanding and too permissive. It is too demanding, since it sometimes requires agents to make heroic sacrifices for the sake of others; it is too per- missive, since it accepts no constraints or special duties. A particu- larly vivid illustration of the utilitarian laxness about constraints was brought up in the last chapter. Utilitarianism would demand a doctor to kill an innocent person, cut him up, and distribute his organs in order to save five other people.
Now, rule-utilitarians will claim that these problems do not refute utilitarianism as such, only act-utilitarianism. As they see it, act- utilitarianism is too act-oriented, for it counts only the consequences of individual actions. We should instead judge actions by the conse- quences of the rules under which they fall. If we do this, we will avoid the problems that plague act-utilitarianism. For instance, even if the doctor’s action of killing the patient would maximize total well- being, it is doubtful that total well-being would be maximized if every doctor accepted a rule that permitted them to cut up one healthy patient in order to save five.
The question I shall discuss in this chapter is whether rule- utilitarianism is superior to act-utilitarianism. In particular, I shall ask whether rule-utilitarianism can accommodate constraints, as well as special duties and options, without at the same time betraying the spirit of utilitarianism. In the last section I will turn to act- utilitarianism and see whether there is any place left for rules in this theory.
RULE UTILITARIANISM
Both rule- and act-utilitarianism are primarily interested in deter- mining the rightness of individual actions. They also agree that out- come values fully determine rightness. But they disagree about which outcomes are relevant. Act-utilitarianism judges actions directly by their consequences, whereas rule-utilitarianism judges actions indi- rectly by the consequences of the rules under which the actions fall.
The bare bones of a rule-utilitarian theory can be presented as follows:
(1) An action is right if and only if it falls under the best system of rules.
(2) A system of rules is best if and only if it has better consequences than any other system of rules.
(3) One system of rules has better consequences than another if and only if the former would bring about a greater total amount of well-being than the latter.
(1) and (2) define rule-consequentialism. It is only if we add (3) that we get rule-utilitarianism. A rule-consequentialist can of course deny (3) and instead adopt some non-utilitarian evaluation of the out- comes of rules.
What does it mean to say that a system of rules has consequences?
Strictly speaking, no rule can just by itself have consequences. For instance, it does not make sense to ask what consequences ‘Do not lie’ would have. But it does make sense to ask what would happen if everyone accepted the rule ‘Do not lie’. It also makes sense to ask what would happen if everyone followed this rule. Since you can accept a rule without always conforming to it – you may be weak willed, swayed by temptations, or likely to misapply the rule because of lack of information – the rule-utilitarian must decide whether to formulate his theory in terms of the consequences of everyone accepting a rule or the consequences of everyone conforming to a rule. The choice is between, what I shall call, the acceptance version and the conformity version of rule-utilitarianism. Both versions agree that ‘What will happen if I lie?’ is the wrong question to ask. But they differ in what they think is the right question to ask. Whereas the acceptance version thinks the right question is ‘What would happen
if everyone accepted a rule that says it is fine to lie in this situation?’, the conformity version thinks it is ‘What would happen if everybody followed a rule that says it is fine to lie in this situation?’
THE COLLAPSE ARGUMENT
It may be tempting to think that rule-utilitarianism is not a serious alternative to act-utilitariansm, for how could the act-utilitarian rule
‘Maximize total-well-being’ fail to have the best consequences? But it is clear that accepting the act-utilitarian rule will not have the best consequences. As noted in Chapter Six, ordinary humans do not have the motivation and information necessary to apply the rule correctly in all cases. So, the acceptance version of rule-utilitarianism is defi- nitely a serious alternative to act-utilitarianism.
What about the conformity version? There is a popular argument that aims to show that this version of rule-utilitarianism gives exactly the same prescriptions as act-utilitarianism. This collapse argument, as it is often called, starts by considering some simple rule such as ‘Do not lie’. Is there a rule that would have better consequences if every- one followed it? Surely there is. Just think of a case in which I ask you if I look fat in my new jeans. If you tell me the truth, you will cause some minor harm to me. So, in this kind of situation, it would surely have better consequences, if everyone followed a rule such as ‘Do not lie except when you can avoid causing some minor embarrassment to a person by lying to him’. Have we now found the best rule? No, because we could think about other cases where more harm is at stake, for instance, a case where an enemy soldier, bent on killing your friend, asks for his whereabouts. To tell the truth in this kind of situation would mean that a person is killed. So, an even better rule is
‘Do not lie except when you can avoid causing some minor embar- rassment to a person or save a life by lying.’ But this game can be repeated by adding more exception clauses until we reach the rule
‘Do not lie except when you can maximize total well-being by lying’.
This reasoning can be generalized. For any action A, following the rule ‘Do not do A except when doing A will maximize total well- being’ will have better consequences than following the rule ‘Do not do A’. So we seem to have shown that the rule that would have the best consequences, if generally followed, is simply ‘Maximize total well- being’. But this means that the conformity version of rule- utilitarianism will always give the same prescriptions as act-utilitarianism.
This reasoning is flawed, however. Here is a simple counte r- example.1 Suppose that each of us has two options: go to The King’s Arms, a very popular pub, or go to The Oz, a less exciting pub.
Suppose, further, that we act independently of each other. We cannot communicate with each other before we decide where to go (we have no mobile phones, for instance). If we both go to The Oz, we will have fun but not great fun (overall well-being 6). If we both go to the more exciting pub The King’s Arms, we will both have a great time (overall well-being 10). If we go to different places, we will miss out on the fun since we will not be together (overall well-being 0).
See Table 10.1 which illustrates the situation.
Suppose that for some reason we both end up going to The Oz.
(Perhaps we mistakenly think that this would be most fun for us.) Would each of us then act rightly according to act-utilitarianism?
Surprisingly, the answer is yes. To see this, consider first how things look from my perspective. Since you are in fact going to The Oz, I am facing the choice as shown in Table 10.2. Since it is better if I go to The Oz (value 6) than if I go to The King’s Arms (value 0), I ought to go to The Oz. Now, consider how things look from your perspec- tive. Since I will in fact go to The Oz, you are facing the choice as shown in Table 10.3. Since it is better if you go to The Oz (value 6) than if you go to The King’s Arms (value 0), you ought to go to The Oz. So, the surprising conclusion is that in a situation where we both go to The Oz, we each act rightly according to act-utilitarianism.
Table 10.1
You go to The King’s Arms
You go to The Oz
I go to The King’s Arms 10 0
I go to The Oz 0 6
Table 10.2
I go to The King’s Arms 0
I go to The Oz 6
What would the conformity version of rule-utilitarianism tell us to do? To answer this we need to decide which rule would have the best consequences if we followed it. Table 10.4 shows the relevant rules and their respective consequences, if followed. The best rule is there- fore ‘Go to The King’s Arms’. So, each of us ought to go to The King’s Arms, and this holds no matter what the other person will in fact do.
This example shows that the collapse argument is mistaken. It is easy to make this mistake, however, since it is tempting to think that if all agents act in accordance with act-utilitarianism, they will together produce the best consequences they can together produce.
But what is true is only that if all satisfy act-utilitarianism, each agent will produce the best consequences he can produce (given the behav- iour of other agents). The example above shows that it is possible that each agent does the best he can and yet it is not true that the agents jointly do the best they can.
COMPLIANCE VERSUS ACCEPTANCE
As we have seen, both the acceptance version and the conformity version are serious alternatives to act-utilitarianism. One possible reason to choose the acceptance version is that it seems to have an easier time accommodating constraints, special duties, and options.
Table 10.3 You go to The King’s Arms
You go to The Oz
0 6
Table 10.4
Rules Consequences, if followed
‘We go to The King’s Arms’ Value 10
‘We go to The Oz’ Value 6
‘I go to The King’s Arms, you go to The Oz’ Value 0
‘You go to The King’s Arms, I go to The Oz’ Value 0
For instance, if everyone followed the rule ‘kill one patient in order to save five when no one will know about it’ the consequences would be good overall. Each doctor is saving five at the cost of one life but there will be no bad side effects. So, the conformity version must say that this rule has something going for it. If, in contrast, everyone accepted this rule, the consequences are not likely to be good overall, because doctors will make mistakes or lack sufficient motivation and thus not always follow the rule. So, the acceptance version would not think highly of this rule.
Since the acceptance version is a more clear-cut alternative to act- utilitarianism, I will assume it in the following. Other reasons to favour the acceptance version will be highlighted later when we con- sider objections to rule-utilitarianism.
ADVANTAGES OF RULE-UTILITARIANISM
On the face of it, rule-utilitarianism has some clear advantages over act-utilitarianism:
(1) It ties in with our moral practice of testing moral judgements by putting them through a universalization test. If your friend tells you that it is fine for him to evade taxes or cheat in exams because his deviation from generally upheld norms will not cause any bad conse- quences, your reaction is likely to be ‘What if everyone thought it would be OK to do that?’ The rule-utilitarian thinks this is the right question to ask and adds that the answer should be stated in terms of the consequences of everyone’s thinking that it is OK to perform that action.
(2) Rule-utilitarianism seems also able to avoid the charge of being too demanding. A rule that prohibits people to pursue their innocent projects at the expense of overall well-being would not have good consequences if it was generally accepted. Bad consequences will emerge if people accept a theory that demands too much of them.
For instance, they will often fail to live up to their high standards and this failure will lower their morale. The best rule will therefore be a rule that gives agents some options.
(3) The charge of being too permissive can also be avoided. The rule-utilitarian would argue that the best system of rules will incor- porate important constraints. For instance, the best system of rules
will not permit doctors to cut up healthy patients and distribute their organs to save others, because if doctors thought that this was OK, disastrous consequences would follow.
Similarly, if people thought it was OK to break a promise, lie, or cheat for the sake of some minor benefit, people would lose trust in each other. So, the best system of rules will contain some prohibitions against breaking promises, lying, and cheating for minor gains.
Special obligations also seem to have a place in the best rule, since we are often in a better position to benefit our nearest and dearest.
Also, if we all went around feeling the same responsibility for every person our sense of responsibility would get diluted.
OBJECTIONS TO RULE-UTILITARIANISM Poor guide to action
One may think that rule-utilitarianism is a more user-friendly theory than act-utilitarianism because it may seem easier to know what one ought to do according to rule-utilitarianism. Since the best system of rules will to a large extent coincide with common sense, rule-utili- tarianism will tell you not to cheat, lie, and break promises. And these duties are pretty user-friendly: it is normally quite easy to know how to comply with them. However, this assumes that we have already established that the best system of rules will include these common-sense duties. But this assumes a lot. Remember that the best system is defined as the system that would have the best conse- quences if everyone accepted it. But ‘everyone’ includes not just us living here and now but also future people. Even if we can be reason- ably certain that a system including duties from our current conven- tional morality would have the best consequences, if we accepted it, we cannot be certain that this system would also have the best consequences, if it were accepted not just by us but by all future generations. Who knows how the future of humanity will develop and what capacities future people will have? This means that the rule- utilitarian will also have to face the knowledge problem we discussed in Chapter Six. I cannot easily know what I ought to do, since I cannot easily know what is the best system of rules for all present and future generations.
The rule-utilitarian can of course redefine his theory in terms of the expected value of accepting a system of rules. But, as noted in Chapter Six, the act-utilitarian can redefine his theory in terms of the expected value of individual acts. So, rule-utilitarianism does not seem to have an advantage over act-utilitarianism with respect to usability.
Partial compliance
A standard objection to rule-utilitarianism is that it seems to suffer from the same wrong-headed idealism we find in the naive pacifist:
‘If everyone accepted my pacifist principles, there would be no wars and no need to take up arms. Therefore, I should not take up arms.’
This is wrong-headed, since we have to decide what to do in an imper- fect world. We know that we will have to interact with immoral agents who are not interested in doing right and also with moral agents who will often fail to live up to their moral standards. When the rule-utili- tarian asks what would happen if everyone accepted a moral rule, he rules out the possibility of dealing with people who do not accept any moral rules. For instance, if everyone fully accepted rules forbidding harming the innocent, stealing, promise breaking, and lying, there would be little or no need for rules about punishing the perpetrators and compensating their victims. But surely that does not show that there is no justification for punishments and compensations in the real world. The root of the problem is that deciding what to do on the basis of what would happen if everyone accepted certain rules is in effect to imagine out of existence people who do not accept moral rules.
In reply, the rule-utilitarian could point out that if the theory is formulated in terms of acceptance rather than compliance, there is still some room left for dealing with people who accept rules but fail to act on them. This is only a partial response, of course, since we still need to deal with people who do not accept any moral rules.
To deal with these people, the theory has to be revised so that it does not ask for full acceptance. Rather, as Brad Hooker suggests, we should ask what would happen if an overwhelming majority accepted a certain rule.2 More exactly:
An act is wrong if and only if it is prohibited by a system of rules the acceptance of which by the overwhelming majority of all people would bring about the greatest total well-being.
This revised theory will make it possible to deal with a minority of amoral people who do not accept any moral rules. Note, however, that this response will make rule-utilitarianism vague, since it is not clear which exact percentage of acceptance we should go for. Hooker suggests 90 per cent, but admits that this is somewhat arbitrary.3 Perhaps this imprecision is something we can live with, but it should be noted that it makes rule-utilitarianism more difficult to apply.
Disaster prevention
Another related objection to rule-utilitarianism is that acting accor- ding to the best rule may lead to a disaster in the real situation.
Suppose that all that is needed to prevent two children from starving to death is the donation of 10 pounds, and that you and I can easily donate 5 pounds each. Suppose further that I will in fact donate my share, but you will not. Is it then true that I Should still donate my share of 5 pounds and smugly think that I did my fair share, when in fact the children are left to die and I could easily have saved them by donating 10 pounds?
In reply, the rule-utilitarian would question whether the best rule for this kind of situation will be ‘give 5 pounds each to save the child’.
A better rule seems to be ‘give 5 pounds each to save the child, except when one of us will fail to donate, in which case give 10 pounds’.
More generally, the rule-utilitarian could argue that the best system of rules will contain disaster prevention rules of something like the form ‘Do your fair share, except when doing your fair share leads to a disaster because of others’ failure to comply, and you can without great sacrifice do something else instead and thereby prevent the disaster.’ This does not mean that we are back to the stringent rules of act- utilitarianism, for act-utilitarians will tell us to make up for others’ moral failures even if only slightly more well-being will be gained that way.
Of course, it is not clear exactly what should count as a disaster in the rule-utilitarian theory – a lost life, a lost limb, excruciating pain, depression? So, again, we would have to put up with some impreci- sion in the moral theory and accept that it is less clear how it should be applied.
Furthermore, following qualified rules of this kind can add up to a great sacrifice over time. If I am unlucky and repeatedly meet with