ABSTRACT
Act-utilitarianism maintains that every individual act should be judged in terms of its consequences in respect of happiness. One have seen that rule-utilitarianism cannot be reduced to act-utilitarianism. Rule-utilitarianism is the view that one should be governed by rules relating to the promotion of happiness, and that every individual rule should be judged in terms of its consequences, in respect of happiness. It seems to the author so plain and crucial to recognize that rule-utilitarianism is the logical refinement of utilitarianism, that one must pause to consider certain well known arguments against it. The argument was not that abiding by the rule will invariably prove beneficial on each particular occasion. The fact that on a specific occasion to break such a rule would increase the happiness of all concerned is neither here nor there. A prior calculation has taken such a possibility into account and concluded that notwithstanding such occasions the rule should obtain.
