Ethics Philosophy

Name
Tutor
Course
Institution
Moral Philosophy
Question 1
Consequentialism is a philosophical term used to describe the ethical theory of utilitarianism. The Consequentialism approach is applied to determine the moral rightness of an act or behavior. It provides that whether an action is morally right or wrong entirely depend on the consequences of such an act or related motives. The main idea behind consequentialism is that; to make moral decisions, the implications of the proposed act or behavior must be weighed (Peterson 5). When the positive consequences outweigh negative ones, the act is said to be moral. For example, lying is considered morally wrong but when it comes to a situation to tell lies to save someone’s life, then lying is right.
Question 2
The utility is a concept within the utilitarianism theory (teleological approach to ethics) which provides that actions are right when they promote happiness or pleasure and wrong when it inflicts pain on other people. According to Mill (342), the human nature always wants to experience happiness in life and will usually struggle to have more than less of good in every decision. Acting rationally to produce the best results towards happiness or pleasure symbolizes maximizing utility. For example, the police gunning down a terrorist justify the act of maximizing utility. While it is wrong to kill, such decision or act will create happiness in the society who suffers in the hands of a terrorist.
Question 3
While the two types of utilitarianism (act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism) agree that the objective of ethics is to maximize utility to happiness, they differ on how or where the decisions should be applied to achieve goals.

Act utilitarianism provides that it is usually right to choose acts or behaviors that will maximize happiness in the society. On the other hand, rule utilitarianism argues that the behaviors causing happiness should be figured out and set into rules in the society (Mill, Bentham & Troyer 20).
The two types of utilitarianism are well illustrated in a situation where the judge wants to send a person convicted of murder to prison, yet the victim family had already forgiven the action of the person. According to the act utilitarianism, the convict should be set free by the judge, but rule utilitarianism does not allow that since the convict must face punishment for the crimes committed as provided by the rule of law.
Works Cited
Mill, John Stuart, Jeremy Bentham, and John Troyer. The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill. Hackett Publishing, 2003.
Mill, John Stuart. “Utilitarianism.” Seven Masterpieces of Philosophy. Routledge, 2016. 337-383.
Peterson, Martin. The dimensions of consequentialism: Ethics, equality, and risk. Cambridge University Press, 2013.