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Recommended: What is the relationship between law and morality

In this paper, I will argue that the most plausible moral theory is the Rawlsian Social Contract Theory (RSCT) when compared to U5. I will prove why this theory is superior to Jeremy Bentham’s hedonistic act utilitarianism (U5) by first raising an objection against U5 and exploring why the Utilitarian response to that objection is insufficient.
Social contract theory is very similar to laws in our society, it is a set of basic rules which people of a certain society must abide by, and these rules are set out to serve a purpose, similar to the law people would be better off if some actions were constrained, actions such as murder and theft. Social contract theorists argue that people should surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the ruler in exchange for protection of their remaining rights. There are several theorists of social contract, those include the likes of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, and John Rawls to name a few. There are different versions of social contract theory such as Naïve Social Contract Theory (NSCT) and Hypothetical Social Contract Theory (HSCT). The latter of these theories were the early stages of RSCT, what Rawls did was he expanded on the HSCT and ironed out the kinks so that there are almost no problems or objections to the theory, and I find it very attractive. All social contract theories presuppose the following:
1. The concept of society is clear.
2. Each act is performed in exactly one society. Given assumption 2, for any act A, we shall say that A’s society is the in which A is performed.
3. A moral code is a set of moral rules.
4. Terminology: to say that an act is permitted by moral code is to say that the act is right according to the rules of that code.
Wi...

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...ations. In a utilitarian society people would have their right abused far too often. I believe in such a society people would not even feel safe. There must be fair, and unbiased rules in a society to protect the people of that society from being used to other people’s advantage.
Therefore the most plausible moral theory is the Rawlsian Social Contract Theory (RSCT) when compared to U5. U5 would make it very difficult to feel safe living under such a moral theory. People need to feel safe living in a society, people need to know that their rights are taken into consideration when people decide to commit certain actions. In the case of the inhospitable hospital people would not feel safe going to a hospital where they could potentially be taken apart for other people’s advantage. Everyone in a society should have equal rights otherwise the society would not function.

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