Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is the most influential form of consequentialism in Ethics: the theory that the moral rightness of an action is determined entirely by its consequences — specifically by the amount of well-being (utility, happiness) it produces. The right action is the one that produces the greatest good for the greatest number.

Core Principle

"Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness." — John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (1863)

Utilitarianism has two components:

Welfarism — the only intrinsically valuable thing is well-being (happiness, pleasure, preference-satisfaction)
Aggregation — the well-being of all affected parties counts equally, and we should maximize total well-being

Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832)

The founder of utilitarianism. Bentham's hedonic calculus proposed measuring pleasure and pain by:

Intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity (nearness)
Fecundity (tendency to be followed by more pleasure), purity (not followed by pain)
Extent (number of persons affected)

Pushpin is as good as poetry — pleasures differ only in quantity, not quality. This was widely criticized as reducing human flourishing to mere sensation.

Bentham was also a legal reformer and social radical. His panopticon (a prison design where inmates never know if they're being watched) was analyzed by Michel Foucault as a metaphor for modern disciplinary power.

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)

Mill modified Bentham's account in Utilitarianism (1863):

Higher and lower pleasures — pleasures of the intellect and moral sentiment are qualitatively superior to bodily pleasures. "Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied."
Proof of utility — the only proof that something is desirable is that people actually desire it (criticized as a fallacy — what is desired ≠ what ought to be desired)
Liberty — Mill's On Liberty (1859) is the foundational text of liberalism: the only legitimate use of power over another is to prevent harm to others (harm principle)

Mill's liberalism connects to Political Philosophy and Locke's natural rights tradition, though grounded consequentially rather than in rights.

Act vs. Rule Utilitarianism

Act utilitarianism — evaluate each particular action by its consequences
Rule utilitarianism — follow rules whose general observance produces the best consequences

Rule utilitarianism is often advocated to avoid counterintuitive results: act utilitarianism seems to allow murder, torture, or breaking promises whenever the numbers work out favorably.

Preference Utilitarianism

Peter Singer and others argue for preference utilitarianism: what matters is the satisfaction of preferences, not just pleasure. This grounds animal ethics (sentient animals have preferences that count morally) and practical ethics on abortion, euthanasia, and global poverty.

Criticisms

From Kant and Deontology

Kant argued that treating a person as a mere means to the greatest good violates their dignity. The Categorical Imperative is violated by utilitarian calculations that justify using individuals for collective benefit.

From Bernard Williams

Integrity objection: utilitarianism requires us to abandon our deepest commitments and projects if the numbers demand it. This is "one thought too many" — it alienates us from our own agency.

From Rawls and Justice

John Rawls argued utilitarianism fails to take seriously the separateness of persons — it can justify imposing great burdens on some for small gains to many. See Social Contract.

From Virtue Ethics

Virtue Ethics argues that character and motive matter morally, not just outcomes. A person who calculates about every action lacks the spontaneous goodness of a virtuous agent. See Virtue Ethics.

From Nietzsche

Nietzsche dismissed utilitarianism as a philosophy of mediocrity — optimizing for average happiness rather than excellence.

Influence

Utilitarianism underpins cost-benefit analysis in economics and public policy
Effective altruism draws directly on utilitarian principles
Animal liberation (Peter Singer) follows from preference utilitarianism
Global poverty ethics follows from the equal moral weight of all persons

Ethics — the three major normative frameworks
Categorical Imperative — Kant's deontological alternative
Virtue Ethics — the character-based alternative
Political Philosophy — utilitarian political theory
Social Contract — Rawls' critique of utilitarianism
Nietzsche — radical critique of utilitarian values
Mill — who developed and refined utilitarianism