Utilitarianism
Tradition · 19th century, Britain · Philosophy, stage 2: Map the schools
Utilitarianism judges actions by their consequences, specifically by how much happiness or suffering they produce for everyone affected. Jeremy Bentham founded the tradition by proposing that pleasure and pain could in principle be measured and compared, making moral calculation possible in the same spirit as a scientific calculation. John Stuart Mill, Bentham's godson and intellectual successor, refined the theory by distinguishing higher, intellectual pleasures from lower, bodily ones, and by connecting utilitarianism to a defense of individual liberty in works like On Liberty. The tradition remains influential in fields from public policy to animal ethics, wherever decisions get judged by their actual effect on wellbeing.
What it claims
- The right action is the one that produces the greatest overall happiness or wellbeing.
- Consequences, not intentions or rules, determine whether an action is right.
- Everyone's happiness counts equally in the calculation, not just the actor's own.
- Pleasures can differ in quality, not just quantity, according to Mill's refinement.
Key ideas
People
Sources
- John Stuart Mill Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Mill Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
