Act-Utilitarianism states that “what makes an action right is that it maximizes happiness, everyone considered”. I will give an example of a moral act under this ideology. Say you found a $100 bill on the ground and had absolutely no ides who it belonged to. You decided you want to give it to a good charity that you know of to support hungry children. On your way to donate the money you run into a genuine homeless person who is begging for money. The homeless person is near death from the elements and lack of food. Now according to act-utilitarianism the moral thing to do give the money to the charity regardless of the homeless person. The reason for this is because the charity will most definitely spread the weather to more people, thus increasing happiness to many children. The homeless person however will only increase happiness of himself which is only one person.
I don’t agree with act-utilitarianism and I have a negative counter example. Say for instance there was a leader of a country who the people loved and trusted. Someone than killed that leader and you were the prime suspect for whatever reason. Because of the death of the leader, all over the country riots are occurring and people are getting hurt everyday. Everyone in the country is going crazy until the person responsible for the death of the leader is behind bars. According to an act-utilitarianist, it would be the moral decision to accept responsibility for killing even though you didn’t do it. The reason for this is because if you accept responsibly then riots will stop occurring and people will stop getting hurt. Thus increasing the happiness of everyone in the country dramatically. However this action completely disregard the concept of justice. I believe for that fact alone that act-utilitarianism is morally reprehensible, because it itself disregard our most prized possession, justice. Without justice killers, rapists and thieves would be free to roam the earth because of an act-utilitarianist “duty” to turn themselves in rather then the actual criminal.
Heart of the Wolph 