An investigation into the Smart's Act-utilitarianism

Moral issues are studied in the three realms of metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. Utilitarianism is one of the important view in normative ethics. J.J.C. Smart is one of the most distinguished act-utilitarian whose thoughts are highly influenced by Sidgwick’ ideas. Smart has tried to answer two current criticisms leveled against utilitarianism, i.e. the conflict with moral intuitions and the difficulties of calculating the consequences of actions. Thus, first he denies the epistemological validity of moral intuitions and adopts a noncognitivist approach. In some cases that fulfillment of utilitarian action results in conflict with moral intuitions, he appeals to distinction between the context of theory and the context of action. In order to remove the problem of calculating, he benefits from games theory and application of mixed strategy as well as the axiom of ripples on the pond. In this essay, following the presentation of the theoretical foundation of smart’s idea, some criticism will be levelled and finally his answers to them will be evaluated.