In conclusion, I must put in a not too apologetic apology for the triviality of my own examples, such as the hockey one. I find that anti-utilitarians tend to be very high minded, angry and moralistic when they write against utilitarianism. I think that I used to be just as irritating from my side of the fence (accusations of superstition, rule worship, and so on). So though I have had to consider the distressing examples of [Bernard] Williams and [H. J.] McCloskey, my own examples have been relatively trivial ones, my hope being that this might help to cool the climate of the discussion. Readers can easily make up more exciting examples if they want to, even though I think that my examples are perfectly adequate to illustrate the conceptual points which I need to make.
(J. J. C. Smart, "Benevolence as an Over-riding Attitude," Australasian Journal of Philosophy 55 [August 1977]: 127-35, at 135 [brackets added])
Note from KBJ: Fourteen years later, in his essay "Utilitarianism and Punishment" (Israel Law Review 25 [1991]: 360-75, at 371), Smart referred to rule utilitarianism as "absurd rule worship." So much for cooling the climate of the discussion!
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 