The Structural Reflection of Institutional Utilitarianism on the Issue of Uncertainty of Outcome—Based on Russell Harding's Paradigm Renovation in the Study of Moral Strategies

Utilitarianism originating from the empiricism tradition generally takes the form of consequentialism, that is to say, the principle of utilitarian maximization is based on the calculation of results. However, the feasibility of this utilitarian calculation and the accuracy of the calculation results have made it subject to great theoretical doubts. Contemporary Act-utilitarianism and Rule-utilitarianism are limited by research paradigms, and they mainly think about social public ethics from the perspective of micro-rational behavior, which cannot effectively solve the theoretical problems above. The contemporary institutional utilitarianism represented by Russell Harding has promoted a structural paradigm innovation. On the basis of proposing three rational limitations, the uncertainty of outcome is internalized into an interactive structure of different types of moral strategies, and through the method of game theory, the incentive situation of outcome utilitarianism is studied, and finally it is extended to institutional arrangements and rights protection that go deep into the social structure. Institutional utilitarianism explains the internal unity of behavior, rules and institutions in a broad sense, solves the theoretical disputes within contemporary utilitarianism more properly, and responds to the challenges and criticisms of New Liberalism from a higher moral perspective.