Two-level Utilitarianism - Two-level Utilitarianism

Two-level Utilitarianism

Two-level utilitarianism can be seen as an attempt to bypass objections to act and rule utiliarianism by borrowing the best features of both theories and combining them, and as a way of solving the problem of what to do when moral rules conflict. Indeed, Hare reports favourably of a church placard which read, "If you have conflicting duties, one of them isn't your duty."

Hare proposed that on a day to day basis, one should think and act like a rule utilitarian and follow a set of intuitive prima facie rules, in order to avoid human error and bias influencing one's decision-making, and thus avoiding the problems that affected act utilitarianism. However, sometimes one would encounter an unusual situation, either where two rules contradict each other or where the normal rules would specify a course of action that is obviously not the most beneficial. In such a situation, Hare advocated that one change one's mode of moral thinking to a second 'critical' level, and behave like an act utilitarian.

As a descriptive model of the two levels, Hare posited two extreme cases of people, one of whom would only use critical moral thinking and the other of whom would only use intuitive moral thinking. The former he called the 'archangel' and the latter the 'prole'. It is worth noting that it is not Hare's intention to divide up the entire human race into either archangels or proles; according to his theory each person shares the traits of both to limited and varying extents at different times. The archangel has superhuman powers of thought, superhuman knowledge and no weaknesses. This unbiased 'ideal observer', when presented with an unfamiliar situation, would be able to immediately scan all potential consequences of all possible actions in order to frame a universal principle from which he could decide an appropriate action for the situation. Such a person would not need a set of intuitive moral rules, as he/she would be able to decide the correct response to any possible situation by reason alone. By contrast, the prole has these human weaknesses to an extreme degree. He/she must rely upon intuitions and sound prima facie principles all of the time, as he is incapable of critical thought. The set of intuitive moral rules that the prole follows must be simple and general enough that they can be easily understood and memorised, and also quick and easy to use.

Once one has identified the different types of moral thinking, the next step is to identify when one ought to think like an archangel, and when like a prole. Hare identifies three types of situation where critical thinking is necessary. The first is when the intuitive general principles conflict in particular cases. The second is when, "though there is no conflict between principles, there is something highly unusual about the case which prompts the question whether the general principles are really fitted to deal with it." Thirdly, and most importantly, critical thinking is necessary in order to select the intuitive prima facie principles that will be used.