Rule utilitarianism and decision theory

Erkenntnis 11 (1):25 - 53 (1977)
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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show how some of the controversial questions concerning utilitarianism can be clarified by the modelling techniques and the other analytical tools of decision theory (and, sometimes, of game theory). It is suggested that the moral rules of utilitarian ethics have a logical status similar to that of the normative rules (theorems) of such formal normative disciplines as decision theory and game theory.The paper argues that social utility should be defined, not in hedonistic or in ideal-utilitarian terms, but rather in terms of individual preferences, in accordance with the author's equiprobability model of moral value judgments.

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References found in this work

Principia ethica.George Edward Moore - 1903 - Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. Edited by Thomas Baldwin.
The Language of Morals.Richard Mervyn Hare - 1952 - Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Utilitarianism: For and Against.J. J. C. Smart & Bernard Williams - 1973 - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Bernard Williams.
The language of morals.Richard Mervyn Hare - 1952 - Oxford,: Clarendon Press.
Freedom and reason.Richard Mervyn Hare - 1963 - Oxford,: Clarendon Press.

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