ABSTRACT
Utilitarians, it is often claimed, are in principle willing to sacrifice innocent persons for the good of the greater number. On the face of it, that might give the utilitarian the opportunity of arguing that the act would not clearly be productive in terms of happiness, and hence author would not have to see it as justified. But it is clear that some of the more extreme forms of the scapegoat argument would not get off the ground on rule-utilitarian terms. The latter might possibly be regarded as morally justifiable by the rule-utilitarian, but so it might by many other ethical theories. It is important to remember that the particular argument one are concerned with here is one that seeks to show that utilitarianism leads to intuitively unacceptable consequences. But, as he hopes is by now clear, that is not the case in respect of rule-utilitarianism interpreted in terms of the ideal.
