I think I have a decent understanding but love learning more and new perspectives help. Also what are the opposing viewpoints/philosophies?
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There are a few differing versions, but they all say some form of: the morally right thing to do is the one that brings about the most overall good. “Good” is usually defined as some form of human happiness. For example, tripping a kid about to run into a busy street might be considered morally correct. Tripping in general isn’t nice, but it’s nicer than getting hit by a car.
Some common complaints about it are: It gets you nowhere without a solid definition of “good.” It can involve a lot of on the spot moral calculations that aren’t always easy to make as opposed to steadfast rules like “tripping someone is bad.” You can get different answers to the same question depending on how big you draw your circle so to speak. For instance, lying is bad, but saying you liked the sandwich your kid just made is good, but always lying in those situations leads your kid to mistrust you, so it’s bad again.
The first one can be dealt with, but is its own discussion. You can minimize the last two by drawing your circles really big. That gets you generalized rules that are more broadly applicable but less precise, like “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
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