Key terms and concepts

These terms are found in some school level textbooks but don't seem to appear in any academic works. Of course, the fact that I haven't been able to track them down doesn't mean they don't exist and I would welcome information that proves me wrong.

Certainly, the way these terms are often explained raises a lot of questions. It is often said strong rule utilitarians believe the rules established by the utilitarian principle should never be broken but weak rule utilitarians believe that they can be broken in certain circumstances. Recalling the definition of rule utilitarianism it seems as if weak rule utilitarian is being defined as 'an action is right when it conforms to a rule that is in place because having that rule maximises happiness...except when it is right for some other reason.'

There is a debate within rule utilitarianism about how to identify the appropriate rule. One approach is to suggest that the appropriate rule is more nuanced than the simplistic rule. So rather than 'stop at red lights' the actual rule to be followed might be 'stop at red lights except when doing so would cause considerable suffering'. This isn't a debate between those who think you should follow the rule and those who don't it is a debate about what the rule is that should be followed. A second approach is to insist that there is always an overiding rule which might be worded 'avoid catastrophe.' Again, this isn't about not following rules it is about which rule should be followed.

The way weak rule utilitarianism is presented sounds more like the standard act utilitarian position, namely that an action is right when it maximises happiness but the best way of ensuring people do the right action is to advocate rules as a decision making process. There is then a debate within act utilitarianism about when these rules can be abandoned and who can decide on this. The position that you should use an act utilitarian theory of right but a rule based decision making process has sometimes been referred to as partial rule utilitarianism. However, if this is adopted it has to be noted that according to the definitions of act and rule utilitarianism being used in the course this is still a form of act utilitarianism and what is left as a pure act utilitarian position, where the decision making process advocated is to do the utility calculation every time a decision has to be made, is a position that is rarely, if ever, defended.

Until such time that proper academic support and explanation can be given for these terms I would suggest they are best avoided as they tend to feed in to pupil misunderstanding of both act and rule utilitarianism.