View source for Philosophy:Utilitarianism

{{Short description|Ethical theory based on maximizing well-being}}
{{Hatnote|This article discusses utilitarian ethical and philosophical theory. For [[Biography:John Stuart Mill|John Stuart Mill]]'s book, see Utilitarianism (book). For the architectural theory, see [[Philosophy:Form follows function|Form follows function]].}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=August 2016}}
{{Utilitarianism|expanded=all}}

In ethical philosophy, '''utilitarianism''' is a family of [[Philosophy:Normative ethics|normative]] ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize [[Philosophy:Happiness|happiness]] and [[Finance:Well-being|well-being]] for the affected individuals.<ref>Duignan, Brian. [1999] 2000. "[https://www.britannica.com/topic/utilitarianism-philosophy Utilitarianism]" (revised). ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''. Retrieved 5 July 2020.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Utilitarianism|url=https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary/utilitarianism|access-date=2020-05-27|website=Ethics Unwrapped|publisher=McCombs School of Business|location=Austin, TX|language=en-US}}</ref> In other words, utilitarian ideas encourage actions that ensure the greatest good for the greatest number.

Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different characterizations, the basic idea behind all of them is, in some sense, to maximize [[Utility|utility]], which is often defined in terms of well-being or related concepts. For instance, [[Biography:Jeremy Bentham|Jeremy Bentham]], the founder of utilitarianism, described ''utility'' as: <blockquote>That property in any [[Philosophy:Object|object]], whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness&nbsp;... [or] to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered.</blockquote>

Utilitarianism is a version of [[Philosophy:Consequentialism|consequentialism]], which states that the consequences of any action are the only [[Philosophy:Morality|standard of right and wrong]]. Unlike other forms of consequentialism, such as [[Philosophy:Ethical egoism|egoism]] and [[Philosophy:Altruism (ethics)|altruism]], utilitarianism considers either the interests of all humanity and/or all sentient beings [[Philosophy:Equal consideration of interests|equally]]. Proponents of utilitarianism have disagreed on a number of issues, such as whether actions should be chosen based on their likely results (''[[Philosophy:Act utilitarianism|act utilitarianism]]''), or whether [[Philosophy:Agency|agents]] should conform to rules that maximize utility (''[[Philosophy:Rule utilitarianism|rule utilitarianism]]''). There is also disagreement as to whether total utility (''total utilitarianism'') or average utility (''average utilitarianism'') should be maximized.

Though the seeds of the theory can be found in the [[Philosophy:Hedonism|hedonists]] [[Biography:Aristippus|Aristippus]] and [[Biography:Epicurus|Epicurus]], who viewed happiness as the only good, and in the work of the medieval Indian philosopher Śāntideva, the tradition of modern utilitarianism began with [[Biography:Jeremy Bentham|Jeremy Bentham]], and continued with such philosophers as [[Biography:John Stuart Mill|John Stuart Mill]], [[Biography:Henry Sidgwick|Henry Sidgwick]], [[Biography:R. M. Hare|R. M. Hare]], and [[Biography:Peter Singer|Peter Singer]]. The concept has been applied towards [[Finance:Welfare economics|social welfare economics]], questions of [[Philosophy:Justice|justice]], the crisis of global poverty, the ethics of raising animals for food, and the importance of avoiding [[Unsolved:Global catastrophic risk|existential risks]] to humanity.

==Etymology==
''Benthamism'', the utilitarian philosophy founded by [[Biography:Jeremy Bentham|Jeremy Bentham]], was substantially modified by his successor [[Biography:John Stuart Mill|John Stuart Mill]], who popularized the term ''utilitarianism''.<ref name="Habibi 2001 89, 112">{{cite book | last=Habibi | first=Don | chapter=Mill's Moral Philosophy | title=John Stuart Mill and the Ethic of Human Growth | publisher=Springer Netherlands | location=Dordrecht | year=2001 | isbn=978-90-481-5668-9 | pages=89–90, 112| doi=10.1007/978-94-017-2010-6_3 }}</ref> In 1861, Mill acknowledged in a footnote that, though Bentham believed "himself to be the first person who brought the word 'utilitarian' into use, he did not invent it. Rather, he adopted it from a passing expression" in John Galt's 1821 novel ''Annals of the Parish''.<ref>[[Biography:John Stuart Mill|Mill, John Stuart]]. 1861. ''Utilitarianism''. n1.</ref> However, Mill seems to have been unaware that Bentham had used the term ''utilitarian'' in his 1781 letter to George Wilson and his 1802 letter to Étienne Dumont.<ref name="Habibi 2001 89, 112"/><!--source needed for: in Bentham's 1802 letter to Dumont he had claimed that 'Utilitarian' was the proper name for his new creed.-->

==Historical background==


=== Pre-modern formulations ===
The importance of [[Philosophy:Happiness|happiness]] as an end for humans has long been recognized. Forms of [[Philosophy:Hedonism|hedonism]] were put forward by [[Biography:Aristippus|Aristippus]] and [[Biography:Epicurus|Epicurus]]; [[Biography:Aristotle|Aristotle]] argued that ''[[Philosophy:Eudaimonia|eudaimonia]]'' is the highest human good; and [[Biography:Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] wrote that "all men agree in desiring the last end, which is happiness." Happiness was also explored in depth by [[Biography:Thomas Aquinas|Thomas Aquinas]], in his ''[[Philosophy:Summa Theologica|Summa Theologica]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2001.htm|title=SUMMA THEOLOGICA: Man's last end (Prima Secundae Partis, Q. 1)|work=newadvent.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2002.htm|title=SUMMA THEOLOGICA: Things in which man's happiness consists (Prima Secundae Partis, Q. 2)|work=newadvent.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2003.htm|title=SUMMA THEOLOGICA: What is happiness (Prima Secundae Partis, Q. 3)|work=newadvent.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2004.htm|title=SUMMA THEOLOGICA: Things that are required for happiness (Prima Secundae Partis, Q. 4)|work=newadvent.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2005.htm|title=SUMMA THEOLOGICA: The attainment of happiness (Prima Secundae Partis, Q. 5)|work=newadvent.org}}</ref> Meanwhile, in medieval India, the 8th-century Indian philosopher Śāntideva was one of the earliest proponents of utilitarianism, writing that we ought "to stop all the present and future pain and suffering of all sentient beings, and to bring about all present and future pleasure and happiness."<ref>Goodman, Charles. 2016. [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/shantideva/ "Śāntideva"], Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 31 August 2020.</ref>

Different varieties of [[Philosophy:Consequentialism|consequentialism]] also existed in the ancient and medieval world, like the [[Philosophy:State consequentialism|state consequentialism]] of [[Philosophy:Mohism|Mohism]] or the political philosophy of [[Biography:Niccolò Machiavelli|Niccolò Machiavelli]]. Mohist consequentialism advocated [[Social:Communitarianism|communitarian]] moral goods, including political stability, population growth, and wealth, but did not support the utilitarian notion of maximizing individual happiness.<ref name="Fraser">{{cite book|last1=Fraser|first1=Chris|title=The Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F06FKmKKIXwC&pg=PA62|year=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-532899-8|page=62}}</ref>

=== 18th century ===
Utilitarianism as a distinct ethical position only emerged in the 18th century, and although it is usually thought to have begun with [[Biography:Jeremy Bentham|Jeremy Bentham]], there were earlier writers who presented theories that were strikingly similar.

==== Hutcheson ====
[[Biography:Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)|Francis Hutcheson]] first introduced a key utilitarian phrase in ''An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue'' (1725): when choosing the most moral action, the amount of [[Philosophy:Virtue|virtue]] in a particular action is proportionate to the number of people such brings happiness to.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hutcheson|first=Francis|title=Moral Philosophy from Montaigne to Kant|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2002|isbn=978-0-521-00304-9|editor-last=Schneewind|editor-first=J. B.|page=515|chapter=The Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue|orig-year=1725}}</ref> In the same way, [[Philosophy:Moral evil|moral evil]], or ''[[Philosophy:Vice|vice]]'', is proportionate to the number of people made to suffer. The best action is the one that procures the greatest happiness of the greatest numbers, and the worst is the one that causes the most misery. In the first three editions of the book, Hutcheson included various mathematical algorithms "to compute the Morality of any Actions." In doing so, he pre-figured the [[Philosophy:Felicific calculus|hedonic calculus]] of Bentham.

==== John Gay ====
Some claim that [[Biography:John Gay (philosopher)|John Gay]] developed the first systematic theory of utilitarian ethics.<ref>Ashcraft, Richard (1991) John Locke: Critical Assessments (Critical assessments of leading political philosophers), Routledge, p. 691</ref> In ''Concerning the Fundamental Principle of Virtue or Morality'' (1731), Gay argues that:<ref>{{cite book |last= Gay |first= John |editor-first= J. B. |editor-last= Schneewind |title= Moral Philosophy from Montaigne to Kant |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |page=408 |chapter= Concerning the Fundamental Principle of Virtue or Morality |isbn= 978-0-521-00304-9}}</ref>
{{blockquote|happiness, private happiness, is the proper or ultimate end of all our actions... each particular action may be said to have its proper and peculiar end…(but)…they still tend or ought to tend to something farther; as is evident from hence, viz. that a man may ask and expect a reason why either of them are pursued: now to ask the reason of any action or pursuit, is only to enquire into the end of it: but to expect a reason, i.e. an end, to be assigned for an ultimate end, is absurd. To ask why I pursue happiness, will admit of no other answer than an explanation of the terms.|author=|title=|source=}}

This pursuit of happiness is given a [[Religion:Theology|theological]] basis:<ref>{{cite book |last= Gay |first= John |editor-first= J. B. |editor-last= Schneewind |title= Moral Philosophy from Montaigne to Kant |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |pages=404–05 |chapter= Concerning the Fundamental Principle of Virtue or Morality |isbn= 978-0-521-00304-9}}</ref>
{{blockquote|Now it is evident from the nature of God, viz. his being infinitely happy in himself from all eternity, and from his goodness manifested in his works, that he could have no other design in creating mankind than their happiness; and therefore he wills their happiness; therefore the means of their happiness: therefore that my behaviour, as far as it may be a means of the happiness of mankind, should be such...thus the will of God is the immediate criterion of Virtue, and the happiness of mankind the criterion of the will of God; and therefore the happiness of mankind may be said to be the criterion of virtue, but once removed…(and)…I am to do whatever lies in my power towards promoting the happiness of mankind.|author=|title=|source=}}

==== Hume ====
In ''An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals'' (1751), [[Biography:David Hume|David Hume]] writes:<ref>{{cite book|title=Moral Philosophy from Montaigne to Kant|last=Hume|first=David|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2002|isbn=978-0-521-00304-9|editor-last=Schneewind|editor-first=J. B.|page=552|chapter=An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals}}</ref>{{blockquote|In all determinations of [[Philosophy:Morality|morality]], this circumstance of public utility is ever principally in view; and wherever disputes arise, either in philosophy or common life, concerning the bounds of duty, the question cannot, by any means, be decided with greater certainty, than by ascertaining, on any side, the true interests of mankind. If any false opinion, embraced from appearances, has been found to prevail; as soon as farther experience and sounder reasoning have given us juster notions of human affairs, we retract our first sentiment, and adjust anew the boundaries of moral good and evil.|author=|title=|source=}}

==== Paley ====
[[File:Modern Utiitarianism by Birks.png|thumb|''Modern Utilitarianism'' by Thomas Rawson Birks 1874]]
Gay's theological utilitarianism was developed and popularized by [[Biography:William Paley|William Paley]]. It has been claimed that Paley was not a very original thinker and that the philosophies in his [[Philosophy:Treatise|treatise]] on ethics is "an assemblage of ideas developed by others and is presented to be learned by students rather than debated by colleagues."<ref name="Schneewind 2002 446">{{cite book |last=Schneewind |first=J. B. |title=Moral Philosophy from Montaigne to Kant |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |page=446 |isbn= 978-0-521-00304-9}}</ref> Nevertheless, his book ''The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy'' (1785) was a required text at [[Organization:University of Cambridge|Cambridge]]<ref name="Schneewind 2002 446" /> and Smith (1954) says that Paley's writings were "once as well known in American colleges as were the readers and spellers of William McGuffey and Noah Webster in the elementary schools."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Smith |first=Wilson |date=July 1954 |title=William Paley's Theological Utilitarianism in America |journal=William and Mary Quarterly |series=3rd Series |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=402–24 |doi=10.2307/1943313|jstor=1943313 }}</ref> Schneewind (1977) writes that "utilitarianism first became widely known in England through the work of William Paley."<ref>{{cite book |last=Schneewind |first=J. B. |title=Sidgwick's Ethics and Victorian Moral Philosophy |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1977 |page=122 |isbn= 978-0-19-824552-0}}</ref>

The now-forgotten significance of Paley can be judged from the title of Thomas Rawson Birks's 1874 work ''Modern Utilitarianism or the Systems of Paley, Bentham and Mill Examined and Compared''.

Apart from restating that happiness as an end is grounded in the nature of God, Paley also discusses the place of rules, writing:<ref>{{cite book |last= Paley |first= William |editor-first= J. B. |editor-last= Schneewind |title= Moral Philosophy from Montaigne to Kant |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |pages=455–56 |chapter= The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy |isbn= 978-0-521-00304-9}}</ref>
{{blockquote|[A]ctions are to be estimated by their tendency. Whatever is expedient, is right. It is the utility of any moral rule alone, which constitutes the obligation of it.

But to all this there seems a plain objection, viz. that many actions are useful, which no man in his senses will allow to be right. There are occasions, in which the hand of the assassin would be very useful.… The true answer is this; that these actions, after all, are not useful, and for that reason, and that alone, are not right.

To see this point perfectly, it must be observed that the bad consequences of actions are twofold, particular and general. The particular bad consequence of an action, is the mischief which that single action directly and immediately occasions. The general bad consequence is, the violation of some necessary or useful general rule.…

You cannot permit one action and forbid another, without showing a difference between them. Consequently, the same sort of actions must be generally permitted or generally forbidden. Where, therefore, the general permission of them would be pernicious, it becomes necessary to lay down and support the rule which generally forbids them.|author=|title=|source=}}

==Classical utilitarianism==
===Jeremy Bentham===
{{Main|Biography:Jeremy Bentham}}
[[File:Jeremy Bentham by Henry William Pickersgill detail.jpg|thumb|right|Jeremy Bentham]]
Bentham's book ''An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation'' was printed in 1780 but not published until 1789. It is possible that Bentham was spurred on to publish after he saw the success of Paley's ''Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy''.<ref name="Rosen, Frederick 2003, p. 132">Rosen, Frederick. 2003. ''Classical Utilitarianism from Hume to Mill''. Routledge. p. 132.</ref> Though Bentham's book was not an immediate success,<ref>Schneewind, J. B. 1977. ''Sidgwick's Ethics and Victorian Moral Philosophy''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 122.</ref> his ideas were spread further when Pierre Étienne Louis Dumont translated edited selections from a variety of Bentham's manuscripts into French. ''Traité de législation civile et pénale'' was published in 1802 and then later retranslated back into English by Hildreth as ''The Theory of Legislation'', although by this time significant portions of Dumont's work had already been retranslated and incorporated into Sir John Bowring's edition of Bentham's works, which was issued in parts between 1838 and 1843.

Perhaps aware that [[Biography:Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)|Francis Hutcheson]] eventually removed his algorithms for calculating the greatest happiness because they "appear'd useless, and were disagreeable to some readers,"<ref name="HutchesonIntroduction">[[Biography:Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)|Hutcheson, Francis.]] 1726. "Introduction." In ''An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue''.</ref> Bentham contends that there is nothing novel or unwarranted about his method, for "in all this there is nothing but what the practice of mankind, wheresoever they have a clear view of their own interest, is perfectly conformable to."

Rosen (2003) warns that descriptions of utilitarianism can bear "little resemblance historically to utilitarians like Bentham and J. S. Mill" and can be more "a crude version of [[Philosophy:Act utilitarianism|act utilitarianism]] conceived in the twentieth century as a [[Straw man|straw man]] to be attacked and rejected."<ref>Rosen, Frederick. 2003. ''Classical Utilitarianism from Hume to Mill''. Routledge. p. 32.</ref> It is a mistake to think that Bentham is not concerned with rules. His seminal work is concerned with the principles of legislation and the hedonic calculus is introduced with the words "Pleasures then, and the avoidance of pains, are the ends that the legislator has in view." In Chapter VII, Bentham says: "The business of government is to promote the happiness of the society, by punishing and rewarding.... In proportion as an act tends to disturb that happiness, in proportion as the tendency of it is pernicious, will be the demand it creates for punishment."

==== Principle of utility ====
Bentham's work opens with a statement of the principle of utility:<ref>[[Biography:Jeremy Bentham|Bentham, Jeremy]]. 1780. "[http://www.koeblergerhard.de/Fontes/BenthamJeremyMoralsandLegislation1789.pdf#page=43 Of The Principle of Utility]." Pp. 1–6 in ''An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation''. London: T. Payne and Sons. (Also available as [https://www.utilitarianism.com/jeremy-bentham/#one eText], Wikisoure). p. 1.</ref>

{{blockquote|Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do.… By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever according to the tendency it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is the same thing in other words to promote or to oppose that happiness. I say of every action whatsoever, and therefore not only of every action of a private individual, but of every measure of government.|author=|title=|source=}}

==== Hedonic calculus ====
In Chapter IV, Bentham introduces a method of calculating the value of pleasures and pains, which has come to be known as the hedonic calculus. Bentham says that the value of a pleasure or pain, considered by itself, can be measured according to its intensity, duration, certainty/uncertainty and propinquity/remoteness. In addition, it is necessary to consider "the tendency of any act by which it is produced" and, therefore, to take account of the act's fecundity, or the chance it has of being followed by sensations of the same kind and its purity, or the chance it has of not being followed by sensations of the opposite kind. Finally, it is necessary to consider the extent, or the number of people affected by the action.

==== Evils of the first and second order ====
The question then arises as to when, if at all, it might be legitimate to break the law. This is considered in ''The Theory of Legislation'', where Bentham distinguishes between evils of the first and second order. Those of the first order are the more immediate consequences; those of the second are when the consequences spread through the community causing "alarm" and "danger".

<blockquote>It is true there are cases in which, if we confine ourselves to the effects of the first order, the good will have an incontestable preponderance over the evil. Were the offence considered only under this point of view, it would not be easy to assign any good reasons to justify the rigour of the laws. Every thing depends upon the evil of the second order; it is this which gives to such actions the character of crime, and which makes punishment necessary. Let us take, for example, the physical desire of satisfying hunger. Let a beggar, pressed by hunger, steal from a rich man's house a loaf, which perhaps saves him from starving, can it be possible to compare the good which the thief acquires for himself, with the evil which the rich man suffers?... It is not on account of the evil of the first order that it is necessary to erect these actions into offences, but on account of the evil of the second order.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bentham |first1=Jeremy |last2=Dumont |first2=Etienne |last3=Hildreth | first3=R |title=Theory of Legislation: Translated from the French of Etienne Dumont |publisher=Adamant Media Corporation |date=November 2005 |page=58 |isbn=978-1-4021-7034-8}}</ref></blockquote>

===John Stuart Mill===
{{Main|Biography:John Stuart Mill}}
Mill was brought up as a Benthamite with the explicit intention that he would carry on the cause of utilitarianism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Halevy|first=Elie|title=The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism|year=1966|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=978-0-19-101020-0|pages=282–84}}</ref> Mill's book ''Utilitarianism'' first appeared as a series of three articles published in ''Fraser's Magazine'' in 1861 and was reprinted as a single book in 1863.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ethics: A Pluralistic Approach to Moral Theory|last=Hinman|first=Lawrence|publisher=Wadsworth|year=2012|isbn=978-1-133-05001-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=John Stuart|orig-year=1863|last=Mill|date=2010|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TnYZ4tO5640C&pg=PA33 |title=Utilitarianism - Ed. Heydt (Broadview Editions)|page=33|isbn=978-1-55111-501-6|publisher=Broadview Press |access-date=2019-07-28}}</ref>

====Higher and lower pleasures====
Mill rejects a purely quantitative measurement of utility and says:<ref>{{cite book |last = Mill | first = John Stuart |editor-first= Roger |editor-last= Crisp |title = Utilitarianism |publisher = Oxford University Press |year= 1998 |page = 56 |isbn = 978-0-19-875163-2}}</ref>
{{blockquote|It is quite compatible with the principle of utility to recognize the fact, that some kinds of pleasure are more desirable and more valuable than others. It would be absurd that while, in estimating all other things, quality is considered as well as quantity, the estimation of pleasures should be supposed to depend on quantity alone.}}

The word ''utility'' is used to mean general well-being or happiness, and Mill's view is that utility is the consequence of a good action. Utility, within the context of utilitarianism, refers to people performing actions for social utility. With social utility, he means the well-being of many people. Mill's explanation of the concept of utility in his work, Utilitarianism, is that people really do desire happiness, and since each individual desires their own happiness, it must follow that all of us desire the happiness of everyone, contributing to a larger social utility. Thus, an action that results in the greatest pleasure for the utility of society is the best action, or as [[Biography:Jeremy Bentham|Jeremy Bentham]], the founder of early Utilitarianism put it, as the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

Mill not only viewed actions as a core part of utility, but as the directive rule of moral human conduct. The rule being that we should only be committing actions that provide pleasure to society. This view of pleasure was hedonistic, as it pursued the thought that pleasure is the highest good in life. This concept was adopted by Bentham and can be seen in his works. According to Mill, good actions result in pleasure, and that there is no higher end than pleasure. Mill says that good actions lead to pleasure and define good [[Philosophy:Moral character|character]]. Better put, the justification of character, and whether an action is good or not, is based on how the person contributes to the concept of social utility. In the long run the best proof of a good character is good actions; and resolutely refuse to consider any mental disposition as good, of which the predominant tendency is to produce bad conduct. In the last chapter of Utilitarianism, Mill concludes that justice, as a classifying factor of our actions (being just or unjust) is one of the certain moral requirements, and when the requirements are all regarded collectively, they are viewed as greater according to this scale of "social utility" as Mill puts it.

He also notes that, contrary to what its critics might say, there is "no known [[Philosophy:Epicureanism|Epicurean]] theory of life which does not assign to the pleasures of the intellect&nbsp;... a much higher value as pleasures than to those of mere sensation." However, he accepts that this is usually because the intellectual pleasures are thought to have circumstantial advantages, i.e. "greater permanency, safety, uncostliness, &c." Instead, Mill will argue that some pleasures are intrinsically better than others.

The accusation that [[Philosophy:Hedonism|hedonism]] is a "doctrine worthy only of swine" has a long history. In ''Nicomachean Ethics'' (Book 1 Chapter 5), [[Biography:Aristotle|Aristotle]] says that identifying the good with pleasure is to prefer a life suitable for beasts. The theological utilitarians had the option of grounding their pursuit of happiness in the will of God; the hedonistic utilitarians needed a different defence. Mill's approach is to argue that the pleasures of the intellect are intrinsically superior to physical pleasures.

<blockquote>Few human creatures would consent to be changed into any of the lower animals, for a promise of the fullest allowance of a beast's pleasures; no intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, no instructed person would be an ignoramus, no person of feeling and conscience would be selfish and base, even though they should be persuaded that the fool, the dunce, or the rascal is better satisfied with his lot than they are with theirs.&nbsp;... A being of higher faculties requires more to make him happy, is capable probably of more acute suffering, and certainly accessible to it at more points, than one of an inferior type; but in spite of these liabilities, he can never really wish to sink into what he feels to be a lower grade of existence.&nbsp;... It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be [[Biography:Socrates|Socrates]] dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question...<ref>{{cite book |last=Mill |first=John Stuart |editor-first=Roger |editor-last=Crisp |title=Utilitarianism |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1998 |pages=56–57 |isbn=978-0-19-875163-2}}</ref></blockquote>

Mill argues that if people who are "competently acquainted" with two pleasures show a decided preference for one even if it be accompanied by more discontent and "would not resign it for any quantity of the other," then it is legitimate to regard that pleasure as being superior in quality. Mill recognizes that these "competent judges" will not always agree, and states that, in cases of disagreement, the judgment of the majority is to be accepted as final. Mill also acknowledges that "many who are capable of the higher pleasures, occasionally, under the influence of temptation, postpone them to the lower. But this is quite compatible with a full appreciation of the intrinsic superiority of the higher." Mill says that this appeal to those who have experienced the relevant pleasures is no different from what must happen when assessing the quantity of pleasure, for there is no other way of measuring "the acutest of two pains, or the intensest of two pleasurable sensations." "It is indisputable that the being whose capacities of enjoyment are low, has the greatest chance of having them fully satisfied; and a highly-endowed being will always feel that any happiness which he can look for, as the world is constitute, is imperfect."<ref>John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, Chapter 2</ref>

Mill also thinks that "intellectual pursuits have value out of proportion to the amount of contentment or pleasure (the mental state) that they produce."<ref>Brink, David. [2007] 2018. "[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill-moral-political Mill Moral and Political Philosophy]." ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''. Retrieved 5 July 2020.</ref> Mill also says that people should pursue these grand ideals, because if they choose to have gratification from petty pleasures, "some displeasure will eventually creep in. We will become bored and depressed."<ref>{{Cite journal | doi=10.1017/S0953820811000264|title = No Philosophy for Swine: John Stuart Mill on the Quality of Pleasures| journal=Utilitas| volume=23| issue=4| pages=428–446|year = 2011|last1 = Hauskeller|first1 = Michael| hdl=10871/9381|s2cid = 170099688| hdl-access=free}}</ref> Mill claims that gratification from petty pleasures only gives short-term happiness and, subsequently, worsens the individual who may feel that his life lacks happiness, since the happiness is transient. Whereas, intellectual pursuits give long-term happiness because they provide the individual with constant opportunities throughout the years to improve his life, by benefiting from accruing knowledge. Mill views intellectual pursuits as "capable of incorporating the 'finer things' in life" while petty pursuits do not achieve this goal.<ref>Saunders, Ben. 2010. "J. S. Mill's Conception of Utility." ''Utilitas'' 22(1):52–69. {{doi|10.1017/S0953820809990380}}. {{ProQuest|200183451}}.</ref> Mill is saying that intellectual pursuits give the individual the opportunity to escape the constant depression cycle since these pursuits allow them to achieve their ideals, while petty pleasures do not offer this. Although debate persists about the nature of Mill's view of gratification, this suggests bifurcation in his position.

==== 'Proving' the principle of utility ====
In Chapter Four of ''Utilitarianism'', Mill considers what proof can be given for the principle of utility:<ref>{{cite book |last = Mill | first = John Stuart |editor-first= Roger |editor-last= Crisp |title = Utilitarianism |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1998 |page = 81 |isbn = 978-0-19-875163-2}}</ref>
{{blockquote|The only proof capable of being given that an object is visible, is that people actually see it. The only proof that a sound is audible, is that people hear it.… In like manner, I apprehend, the sole evidence it is possible to produce that anything is desirable, is that people do actually desire it.… No reason can be given why the general happiness is desirable, except that each person, so far as he believes it to be attainable, desires his own happiness…we have not only all the proof which the case admits of, but all which it is possible to require, that happiness is a good: that each person's happiness is a good to that person, and the general happiness, therefore, a good to the aggregate of all persons.|author=|title=|source=}}

It is usual to say that Mill is committing a number of [[Fallacy|fallacies]]:<ref name="Popkin, Richard H. 1950, p. 66">{{cite journal|last=Popkin|first=Richard H.|year=1950|title=A Note on the 'Proof' of Utility in J. S. Mill|journal=Ethics|volume=61|pages=66–68|doi=10.1086/290751|s2cid=170936711}}</ref>

* [[Philosophy:Naturalistic fallacy|naturalistic fallacy]]: Mill is trying to deduce what people ought to do from what they in fact do; 
* equivocation fallacy: Mill moves from the fact that (1) something is desirable, i.e. is capable of being desired, to the claim that (2) it is desirable, i.e. that it ought to be desired; and 
* the [[Fallacy of composition|fallacy of composition]]: the fact that people desire their own happiness does not imply that the aggregate of all persons will desire the general happiness.

Such allegations began to emerge in Mill's lifetime, shortly after the publication of ''Utilitarianism'', and persisted for well over a century, though the tide has been turning in recent discussions. Nonetheless, a defence of Mill against all three charges, with a chapter devoted to each, can be found in Necip Fikri Alican's ''Mill's Principle of Utility: A Defense of John Stuart Mill's Notorious Proof'' (1994). This is the first, and remains{{when|date=January 2019}} the only, book-length treatment of the subject matter. Yet the alleged fallacies in the proof continue to attract scholarly attention in journal articles and book chapters.

Hall (1949) and Popkin (1950) defend Mill against this accusation pointing out that he begins Chapter Four by asserting that "questions of ultimate ends do not admit of proof, in the ordinary acceptation of the term" and that this is "common to all first principles".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hall|first=Everett W.|year=1949|title=The 'Proof' of Utility in Bentham and Mill|journal=Ethics|volume=60|pages=1–18|doi=10.1086/290691|s2cid=145767787}}</ref><ref name="Popkin, Richard H. 1950, p. 66"/> Therefore, according to Hall and Popkin, Mill does not attempt to "establish that what people do desire is desirable but merely attempts to make the principles acceptable."<ref name="Popkin, Richard H. 1950, p. 66" /> The type of "proof" Mill is offering "consists only of some considerations which, Mill thought, might induce an honest and reasonable man to accept utilitarianism."<ref name="Popkin, Richard H. 1950, p. 66" />

Having claimed that people do, in fact, desire happiness, Mill now has to show that it is the ''only'' thing they desire. Mill anticipates the objection that people desire other things such as virtue. He argues that whilst people might start desiring virtue as a ''means'' to happiness, eventually, it becomes part of someone's happiness and is then desired as an end in itself.

{{blockquote|The principle of utility does not mean that any given pleasure, as music, for instance, or any given exemption from pain, as for example health, are to be looked upon as means to a collective something termed happiness, and to be desired on that account. They are desired and desirable in and for themselves; besides being means, they are a part of the end. Virtue, according to the utilitarian doctrine, is not naturally and originally part of the end, but it is capable of becoming so; and in those who love it disinterestedly it has become so, and is desired and cherished, not as a means to happiness, but as a part of their happiness.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mill |first=John Stuart |editor-first=Roger |editor-last=Crisp |title=Utilitarianism |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1998 |page=82 |isbn=978-0-19-875163-2}}</ref>}}

{{blockquote|We may give what explanation we please of this unwillingness; we may attribute it to pride, a name which is given indiscriminately to some of the most and to some of the least estimable feelings of which is mankind are capable; we may refer it to the love of liberty and personal independence, an appeal to which was with the Stoics one of the most effective means for the inculcation of it; to the love of power, or the love of excitement, both of which do really enter into and contribute to it: but its most appropriate appellation is a sense of dignity, which all humans beings possess in one form or other, and in some, though by no means in exact, proportion to their higher faculties, and which is so essential a part of the happiness of those in whom it is strong, that nothing which conflicts with it could be, otherwise than momentarily, an object of desire to them.<ref>Mill, ''Utilitarianism'', Chapter 2.</ref>}}

=== Henry Sidgwick ===
{{main|Biography:Henry Sidgwick}}
Sidgwick's book ''[[Philosophy:The Methods of Ethics|The Methods of Ethics]]'' has been referred to as the peak or culmination of classical utilitarianism.<ref name="Schultz">{{cite web |last1=Schultz |first1=Barton |title=Henry Sidgwick |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sidgwick/ |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=29 December 2020 |date=2020}}</ref><ref name="Craig">{{cite book |last1=Craig |first1=Edward |title=Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy |date=1996 |publisher=Routledge |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/BEAREO |chapter=Sidgwick, Henry}}</ref><ref name="Honderich"/> His main goal in this book is to ground utilitarianism in the principles of ''common-sense morality'' and thereby dispense with the doubts of his predecessors that these two are at odds with each other.<ref name="Craig"/> For Sidgwick, ethics is about which actions are objectively right.<ref name="Schultz"/> Our knowledge of right and wrong arises from common-sense morality, which lacks a coherent principle at its core.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Duignan |first1=Brian |last2=West |first2=Henry R. |title=Utilitarianism |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/utilitarianism-philosophy |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=29 December 2020 |language=en}}</ref> The task of philosophy in general and ethics in particular is not so much to create new knowledge but to systematize existing knowledge.<ref name="Borchert">{{cite book |last1=Borchert |first1=Donald M. |title=Macmillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd Edition |date=2006 |publisher=Macmillan |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/MONMEO-3 |chapter=Sidgwick, Henry}}</ref> Sidgwick tries to achieve this by formulating ''methods of ethics'', which he defines as rational procedures "for determining right conduct in any particular case".<ref name="Craig"/> He identifies three methods: [[Philosophy:Ethical intuitionism|intuitionism]], which involves various independently valid moral principles to determine what ought to be done, and two forms of ''hedonism'', in which rightness only depends on the pleasure and pain following from the action. Hedonism is subdivided into ''egoistic hedonism'', which only takes the agent's own well-being into account, and ''universal hedonism'' or ''utilitarianism'', which is concerned with everyone's well-being.<ref name="Borchert"/><ref name="Craig"/>

Intuitionism holds that we have intuitive, i.e. non-inferential, knowledge of moral principles, which are self-evident to the knower.<ref name="Borchert"/> The criteria for this type of knowledge include that they are expressed in clear terms, that the different principles are mutually consistent with each other and that there is expert consensus on them. According to Sidgwick, commonsense moral principles fail to pass this test, but there are some more abstract principles that pass it, like that "what is right for me must be right for all persons in precisely similar circumstances" or that "one should be equally concerned with all temporal parts of one's life".<ref name="Craig"/><ref name="Borchert"/> The most general principles arrived at this way are all compatible with ''utilitarianism'', which is why Sidgwick sees a harmony between ''intuitionism'' and ''utilitarianism''.<ref name="Honderich">{{cite book |last1=Honderich |first1=Ted |title=The Oxford Companion to Philosophy |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/HONTOC-2 |chapter=Sidgwick, Henry}}</ref> There are also less general intuitive principles, like the duty to keep one's promises or to be just, but these principles are not universal and there are cases where different duties stand in conflict with each other. Sidgwick suggests that we resolve such conflicts in a utilitarian fashion by considering the consequences of the conflicting actions.<ref name="Craig"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Borchert |first1=Donald M. |title=Macmillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd Edition |date=2006 |publisher=Macmillan |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/MONMEO-3 |chapter=Sidgwick, Henry [Addendum]}}</ref>

The harmony between intuitionism and utilitarianism is a partial success in Sidgwick's overall project, but he sees full success impossible since egoism, which he considers as equally rational, cannot be reconciled with utilitarianism unless ''religious assumptions'' are introduced.<ref name="Craig"/> Such assumptions, for example, the existence of a personal God who rewards and punishes the agent in the afterlife, could reconcile egoism and utilitarianism.<ref name="Borchert"/> But without them, we have to admit a "dualism of practical reason" that constitutes a "fundamental contradiction" in our moral consciousness.<ref name="Schultz"/>

== Developments in the 20th century ==

==={{Anchor|Ideal utilitarianism}}Ideal utilitarianism===
The description of ideal utilitarianism was first used by [[Biography:Hastings Rashdall|Hastings Rashdall]] in ''[[Philosophy:The Theory of Good and Evil|The Theory of Good and Evil]]'' (1907), but it is more often associated with [[Biography:G. E. Moore|G. E. Moore]]. In ''Ethics'' (1912), Moore rejects a purely hedonistic utilitarianism and argues that there is a range of values that might be maximized. Moore's strategy was to show that it is intuitively implausible that pleasure is the sole measure of what is good. He says that such an assumption:<ref name="Moore, G. E. 1912">Moore, G. E. (1912).  ''Ethics'', London: Williams and Norgate, Ch. 7</ref>
{{blockquote|involves our saying, for instance, that a world in which absolutely nothing except pleasure existed—no knowledge, no love, no enjoyment of beauty, no moral qualities—must yet be intrinsically better—better worth creating—provided only the total quantity of pleasure in it were the least bit greater, than one in which all these things existed as well as pleasure.

It involves our saying that, even if the total quantity of pleasure in each was exactly equal, yet the fact that all the beings in the one possessed, in addition knowledge of many different kinds and a full appreciation of all that was beautiful or worthy of love in their world, whereas none of the beings in the other possessed any of these things, would give us no reason whatever for preferring the former to the latter.}}

Moore admits that it is impossible to prove the case either way, but he believed that it was intuitively obvious that even if the amount of pleasure stayed the same a world that contained such things as beauty and love would be a better world. He adds that, if a person was to take the contrary view, then "I think it is self-evident that he would be wrong."<ref name="Moore, G. E. 1912"/>

=== Act and rule utilitarianism ===
{{Main|Philosophy:Act utilitarianism|Philosophy:Rule utilitarianism}}
In the mid-20th century, a number of philosophers focused on the place of rules in utilitarian thought.<ref name=":0">Bayles, M. D., ed. 1968. ''Contemporary Utilitarianism''. Doubleday: Anchor Books.</ref> It was already accepted that it is necessary to use rules to help you choose the right action because the problems of calculating the consequences on each and every occasion would almost certainly result in you frequently choosing something less than the best course of action. Paley had justified the use of rules and Mill says:<ref>{{cite book |last = Mill | first = John Stuart |editor-first= Roger |editor-last= Crisp |title = Utilitarianism |publisher = Oxford University Press |year= 1998 |page = 70 |isbn = 978-0-19-875163-2}}</ref>

{{blockquote|It is truly a whimsical supposition that, if mankind were agreed in considering utility to be the test of morality, they would remain without any agreement as to what is useful, and would take no measures for having their notions on the subject taught to the young, and enforced by law and opinion... to consider the rules of morality as improvable, is one thing; to pass over the intermediate generalisations entirely, and endeavour to test each individual action directly by the first principle, is another.… The proposition that happiness is the end and aim of morality, does not mean that no road ought to be laid down to that goal.… Nobody argues that the art of navigation is not founded on astronomy, because sailors cannot wait to calculate the Nautical Almanack. Being rational creatures, they go to sea with it ready calculated; and all rational creatures go out upon the sea of life with their minds made up on the common questions of right and wrong.|author=|title=|source=}}

However, rule utilitarianism proposes a more central role for rules that was thought to rescue the theory from some of its more devastating criticisms, particularly problems to do with justice and promise keeping. Smart (1956) and McCloskey (1957) initially use the terms ''extreme'' and ''restricted'' utilitarianism but eventually settled on the prefixes ''act'' and ''rule'' instead.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Smart|first=J. J. C.|year=1956|title=Extreme and Restricted Utilitarianism|journal=Philosophical Quarterly|volume=6|issue=25|pages=344–54|doi=10.2307/2216786|jstor=2216786|s2cid=147501349}}</ref><ref name="McCloskey1957">{{cite journal|last=McCloskey|first=H. J.|date=October 1957|title=An Examination of Restricted Utilitarianism|journal=Philosophical Review|volume=66|issue=4|pages=466–85|doi=10.2307/2182745|jstor=2182745}}</ref> Likewise, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, articles were published both for and against the new form of utilitarianism, and through this debate the theory we now call ''rule utilitarianism'' was created. In an introduction to an anthology of these articles, the editor was able to say: "The development of this theory was a [[Philosophy:Dialectic|dialectic]]al process of formulation, criticism, reply and reformulation; the record of this process well illustrates the co-operative development of a philosophical theory."<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|1}}

The essential difference is in what determines whether or not an action is the right action. ''Act utilitarianism'' maintains that an action is right if it maximizes utility; ''rule utilitarianism'' maintains that an action is right if it conforms to a rule that maximizes utility.

In 1956, Urmson (1953) published an influential article arguing that Mill justified rules on utilitarian principles.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Urmson|first=J. O.|year=1953|title=The Interpretation of the Moral Philosophy of J. S. Mill|journal=Philosophical Quarterly|volume=3|issue=10|pages=33–39|doi=10.2307/2216697|jstor=2216697}}</ref> From then on, articles have debated this interpretation of Mill. In all probability, it was not a distinction that Mill was particularly trying to make and so the evidence in his writing is inevitably mixed. A collection of Mill's writing published in 1977 includes a letter that seems to tip the balance in favour of the notion that Mill is best classified as an ''act utilitarian''. In the letter, Mill says:<ref>Mill, John Stuart. ''The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill'' 17, edited by J. M. Robson. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 1963–91. p. 1881.</ref>
{{blockquote|I agree with you that the right way of testing actions by their consequences, is to test them by the natural consequences of the particular action, and not by those which would follow if everyone did the same. But, for the most part, the consideration of what would happen if everyone did the same, is the only means we have of discovering the tendency of the act in the particular case.}}

Some school level textbooks and at least one British examination board make a further distinction between strong and weak rule utilitarianism.<ref>Oliphant, Jill. 2007. ''OCR Religious Ethics for AS and A2''. Routledge.</ref> However, it is not clear that this distinction is made in the academic literature. It has been argued that rule utilitarianism collapses into act utilitarianism, because for any given rule, in the case where breaking the rule produces more utility, the rule can be refined by the addition of a sub-rule that handles cases like the exception.<ref>[[Biography:David Lyons (philosopher)|Lyons, David]]. 1965. ''Forms and Limits of Utilitarianism''.</ref> This process holds for all cases of exceptions, and so the "rules" have as many "sub-rules" as there are exceptional cases, which, in the end, makes an agent seek out whatever outcome produces the maximum utility.<ref>Habib, Allen. [2008] 2014. "[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/promises/ Promises]." ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''.</ref>

=== Two-level utilitarianism ===
{{Main|Philosophy:Two-level utilitarianism}}
In ''Principles'' (1973), [[Biography:R. M. Hare|R. M. Hare]] accepts that [[Philosophy:Rule utilitarianism|rule utilitarianism]] collapses into [[Philosophy:Act utilitarianism|act utilitarianism]] but claims that this is a result of allowing the rules to be "as specific and un-general as we please."<ref name="HareRM">{{cite journal|last=Hare|first=R. M.|date=1972–1973|title=The Presidential Address: Principles|journal=Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society |series=New Series|volume=73|pages=1–18|doi=10.1093/aristotelian/73.1.1|jstor=4544830}}</ref> He argues that one of the main reasons for introducing rule utilitarianism was to do justice to the general rules that people need for moral education and character development and he proposes that "a difference between act-utilitarianism and rule-utilitarianism can be introduced by limiting the specificity of the rules, i.e., by increasing their generality."<ref name="HareRM"/>{{rp|14}} This distinction between a "specific rule utilitarianism" (which collapses into act utilitarianism) and "general rule utilitarianism" forms the basis of Hare's ''two-level utilitarianism''.

When we are "[[Philosophy:Playing God (ethics)|playing God]] or the [[Ideal observer theory|ideal observer]]", we use the specific form, and we will need to do this when we are deciding what general principles to teach and follow. When we are "inculcating" or in situations where the biases of our human nature are likely to prevent us doing the calculations properly, then we should use the more general rule utilitarianism.

Hare argues that in practice, most of the time, we should be following the general principles:<ref name="HareRM"/>{{rp|17}}

{{blockquote|One ought to abide by the general principles whose general inculcation is for the best; harm is more likely to come, in actual moral situations, from questioning these rules than from sticking to them, unless the situations are very extra-ordinary; the results of sophisticated felicific calculations are not likely, human nature and human ignorance being what they are, to lead to the greatest utility.}}

In ''Moral Thinking'' (1981), Hare illustrated the two extremes. The "archangel" is the hypothetical person who has perfect knowledge of the situation and no personal biases or weaknesses and always uses critical moral thinking to decide the right thing to do. In contrast, the "prole" is the hypothetical person who is completely incapable of critical thinking and uses nothing but intuitive moral thinking and, of necessity, has to follow the general moral rules they have been taught or learned through imitation.<ref name="Hare 1981 b">{{cite book | last = Hare | first = R.M. |  title = Moral thinking: its levels, method, and point | publisher = Clarendon Press Oxford University Press | location = Oxford New York | year = 1981 | isbn = 978-0-19-824660-2 | url = https://archive.org/details/moralthinkingits0000hare }}</ref> It is not that some people are archangels and others proles, but rather that "we all share the characteristics of both to limited and varying degrees and at different times."<ref name="Hare 1981 b"/>

Hare does not specify when we should think more like an "archangel" and more like a "prole" as this will, in any case, vary from person to person. However, the critical moral thinking underpins and informs the more intuitive moral thinking. It is responsible for formulating and, if necessary, reformulating the general moral rules. We also switch to critical thinking when trying to deal with unusual situations or in cases where the intuitive moral rules give conflicting advice.

=== Preference utilitarianism ===
{{Main|Philosophy:Preference utilitarianism}}
Preference utilitarianism entails promoting actions that fulfil the preferences of those beings involved.<ref>Peter Singer, ''Practical Ethics'', 2011, p. 13</ref> The concept of preference utilitarianism was first proposed in 1977 by [[Biography:John Harsanyi|John Harsanyi]] in ''Morality and the Theory of Rational Behaviour'',<ref>[[Biography:John Harsanyi|Harsanyi, John C.]] 1977. "Morality and the theory of rational behavior." ''Social Research'' 44 (4):623–56. {{JSTOR|40971169}}.</ref><ref name="Harsanyi">[[Biography:John Harsanyi|Harsanyi, John C.]] [1977] 1982. "Morality and the theory of rational behaviour." Pp. 39–62 in ''Utilitarianism and Beyond'', edited by A. Sen and [[Biography:Bernard Williams|B. Williams]]. Cambridge: {{wipe|Cambridge University Press}}. {{ISBN|978-0-511-61196-4}}.</ref> however the concept is more commonly associated with [[Biography:R. M. Hare|R. M. Hare]],<ref name="Hare 1981 b"/> [[Biography:Peter Singer|Peter Singer]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Singer |first=Peter |title=Practical ethics |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge New York |year=1979 |edition=1st |isbn=978-0-521-29720-2 }}:{{cite book |last=Singer |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Singer |title=Practical ethics |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge/New York |year=1993 |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0-521-43971-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/practicalethics00sing }}</ref> and [[Biography:Richard Brandt|Richard Brandt]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Brandt |first=Richard B. |author-link=Richard Brandt |title=A Theory of the Good and the Right |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford/New York |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-19-824550-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/theoryofgood00bran }}</ref>

Harsanyi claims that his theory is indebted to:<ref name="Harsanyi"/>{{rp|42}}

* [[Biography:Adam Smith|Adam Smith]], who equated the moral point of view with that of an impartial but sympathetic observer;
* [[Biography:Immanuel Kant|Immanuel Kant]], who insisted on the criterion of [[Philosophy:Universality|universality]], which may also be described as a criterion of [[Social:Reciprocity (social and political philosophy)|reciprocity]];
* the classical utilitarians who made maximizing social utility the basic criterion of morality; and 
* "the modern theory of rational behaviour under risk and uncertainty, usually described as [[Biography:Thomas Bayes|Bayesian]] [[Decision theory|decision theory]]."

Harsanyi rejects hedonistic utilitarianism as being dependent on an outdated psychology saying that it is far from obvious that everything we do is motivated by a desire to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. He also rejects ideal utilitarianism because "it is certainly not true as an empirical observation that people's only purpose in life is to have 'mental states of intrinsic worth'."<ref name="Harsanyi" />{{rp|54}}

According to Harsanyi, "preference utilitarianism is the only form of utilitarianism consistent with the important philosophical principle of preference autonomy. By this I mean the principle that, in deciding what is good and what is bad for a given individual, the ultimate criterion can only be his own wants and his own preferences."<ref name="Harsanyi"/>{{rp|55}}

Harsanyi adds two caveats. Firstly, people sometimes have [[Irrationality|irrational]] preferences. To deal with this, Harsanyi distinguishes between "'''manifest'''" preferences and "'''true'''" preferences. The former are those "manifested by his observed behaviour, including preferences possibly based on erroneous factual beliefs,{{clarify|date=September 2016}} or on careless logical analysis, or on strong emotions that at the moment greatly hinder [[Finance:Rational choice theory|rational choice]]"; whereas the latter are "the preferences he would have if he had all the relevant factual information, always reasoned with the greatest possible care, and were in a state of mind most conducive to rational choice."<ref name="Harsanyi"/>{{rp|55}} It is the latter that preference utilitarianism tries to satisfy.

The second caveat is that antisocial preferences, such as [[Medicine:Sadistic personality disorder|sadism]], [[Philosophy:Envy|envy]], and resentment, have to be excluded. Harsanyi achieves this by claiming that such preferences partially exclude those people from the moral community:
{{blockquote|Utilitarian ethics makes all of us members of the same moral community. A person displaying ill will toward others does remain a member of this community, but not with his whole personality. That part of his personality that harbours these hostile antisocial feelings must be excluded from membership, and has no claim for a hearing when it comes to defining our concept of social utility.<ref name="Harsanyi"/>{{rp|56}}}}

===Negative utilitarianism===
{{Main|Philosophy:Negative utilitarianism}}
In ''The Open Society and its Enemies'' (1945), [[Biography:Karl Popper|Karl Popper]] argues that the principle "maximize pleasure" should be replaced by "minimize pain". He believes that "it is not only impossible but very dangerous to attempt to maximize the pleasure or the happiness of the people, since such an attempt must lead to totalitarianism."<ref>{{cite book |last=Popper|first=Karl|title=The Open Society and Its Enemies: Volume 2|year=2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-27842-3|page=339}}</ref> He claims that:<ref>{{cite book |last=Popper|first=Karl|title=The Open Society and Its Enemies: Volume 1: The Spell of Plato|year=2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-23731-4|pages=284–85}}</ref>

{{blockquote|[T]here is, from the ethical point of view, no symmetry between suffering and happiness, or between pain and pleasure... In my opinion human suffering makes a direct moral appeal, namely, the appeal for help, while there is no similar call to increase the happiness of a man who is doing well anyway. A further criticism of the Utilitarian formula "Maximize pleasure" is that it assumes a continuous pleasure-pain scale that lets us treat degrees of pain as negative degrees of pleasure. But, from the moral point of view, pain cannot be outweighed by pleasure, and especially not one man's pain by another man's pleasure. Instead of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, one should demand, more modestly, the least amount of avoidable suffering for all...|author=|title=|source=}}

The actual term ''negative utilitarianism'' itself was introduced by R. N. Smart as the title to his 1958 reply to Popper in which he argues that the principle would entail seeking the quickest and least painful method of killing the entirety of humanity.<ref name="Smart1958">{{cite journal|last=Smart|first=R.N.|date=October 1958|title=Negative Utilitarianism|journal=Mind|volume=67|issue=268|pages=542–43|doi=10.1093/mind/lxvii.268.542|jstor=2251207}}</ref>

In response to Smart's argument, Simon Knutsson (2019) has argued that classical utilitarianism and similar [[Philosophy:Consequentialism|consequentialist]] views are roughly equally likely to entail killing the entirety of humanity, as they would seem to imply that one should kill existing beings and replace them with happier beings if possible. Consequently, Knutsson argues:

{{blockquote|The world destruction argument is not a reason to reject negative utilitarianism in favour of these other forms of consequentialism, because there are similar arguments against such theories that are at least as persuasive as the world destruction argument is against negative utilitarianism.<ref name="Knutsson 1–20">{{Cite journal|last=Knutsson|first=Simon|date=2019-08-29|title=The world destruction argument|journal=Inquiry|volume=64|issue=10|pages=1004–1023|doi=10.1080/0020174X.2019.1658631|issn=0020-174X|doi-access=free}}</ref>}}

Furthermore, Knutsson notes that one could argue that other forms of consequentialism, such as classical utilitarianism, in some cases have less plausible implications than negative utilitarianism, such as in scenarios where classical utilitarianism implies it would be right to kill everyone and replace them in a manner that creates more suffering, but also more well-being such that the sum, on the classical [[Philosophy:Felicific calculus|utilitarian calculus]], is net positive. Negative utilitarianism, in contrast, would not allow such killing.<ref name="Knutsson 1–20">{{Cite journal|last=Knutsson|first=Simon|date=2019-08-29|title=The world destruction argument|journal=Inquiry|volume=64|issue=10|pages=1004–1023|doi=10.1080/0020174X.2019.1658631|issn=0020-174X|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Some versions of negative utilitarianism include:

* Negative total utilitarianism: tolerates suffering that can be compensated within the same person.<ref name=":1">Fabian, Fricke. 2002. "Verschiedene Versionen des negativen Utilitarismus." ''Kriterion'' 15(1): p. 14.</ref><ref>Gustav, Arrhenius. 2000. "Future Generations, A Challenge for Moral Theory" (FD-Diss.). Uppsala: [[Organization:Uppsala University|Uppsala University]], Department of Philosophy. p. 100.</ref>
* Negative preference utilitarianism: avoids the problem of moral killing with reference to existing preferences that such killing would violate, while it still demands a justification for the creation of new lives.<ref>Fricke Fabian (2002), Verschiedene Versionen des negativen Utilitarismus, Kriterion, vol.15, no.1, pp. 20–22</ref> A possible justification is the reduction of the average level of preference-frustration.<ref>{Chao, "[http://www.philosophyoflife.org/jpl201204.pdf Negative Average Preference Utilitarianism"], ''Journal of Philosophy of Life'', 2012; 2(1): 55–66</ref>
* Pessimistic representatives of negative utilitarianism, which can be found in the environment of [[Religion:Buddhism|Buddhism]].<ref>Bruno Contestabile: ''Negative Utilitarianism and Buddhist Intuition''. In: ''Contemporary Buddhism'' Vol.15, Issue 2, S. 298–311, London 2014.</ref>
Some see negative utilitarianism as a branch within modern hedonistic utilitarianism, which assigns a higher weight to the avoidance of suffering than to the promotion of happiness.<ref name=":1" /> The moral weight of suffering can be increased by using a "compassionate" utilitarian metric, so that the result is the same as in [[Philosophy:Prioritarianism|prioritarianism]].<ref>Broome John (1991), Weighing Goods, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, p. 222</ref>

===Motive utilitarianism===
Motive utilitarianism was first proposed by [[Biography:Robert Merrihew Adams|Robert Merrihew Adams]] in 1976.<ref>Robert Merrihew Adams, ''Motive Utilitarianism'', The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 73, No. 14, On Motives and Morals (12 August 1976), pp. 467–81</ref> Whereas [[Philosophy:Act utilitarianism|act utilitarianism]] requires us to choose our actions by calculating which action will maximize [[Utility|utility]] and [[Philosophy:Rule utilitarianism|rule utilitarianism]] requires us to implement rules that will, on the whole, maximize utility, ''motive utilitarianism'' "has the utility calculus being used to select motives and dispositions according to their general felicific effects, and those motives and dispositions then dictate our choices of actions."<ref name=":2">Goodin, Robert E. "Utilitarianism as a Public Philosophy." ''Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Public Policy''. Cambridge University Press.</ref>{{Rp|60}}

The arguments for moving to some form of motive utilitarianism at the personal level can be seen as mirroring the arguments for moving to some form of rule utilitarianism at the social level.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|17}} Adams (1976) refers to [[Biography:Henry Sidgwick|Sidgwick's]] observation that "Happiness (general as well as individual) is likely to be better attained if the extent to which we set ourselves consciously to aim at it be carefully restricted."<ref name=":3">Adams, Robert Merrihew. 1976. "Motive Utilitarianism. ''[[Philosophy:The Journal of Philosophy|The Journal of Philosophy]]'' 73(14).</ref>{{Rp|467}}<ref>{{cite web|title=ME Book 3 Chapter 14 Section 5|url=https://www.laits.utexas.edu/poltheory/sidgwick/me/me.b03.c14.s05.html|access-date=2021-05-13|website=www.laits.utexas.edu}}</ref> Trying to apply the utility calculation on each and every occasion is likely to lead to a sub-optimal outcome. Applying carefully selected rules at the social level and encouraging appropriate motives at the personal level is, so it is argued, likely to lead to a better overall outcome even if on some individual occasions it leads to the wrong action when assessed according to act utilitarian standards.<ref name=":3" />{{Rp|471}}

Adams concludes that "right action, by act-utilitarian standards, and right motivation, by motive-utilitarian standards, are incompatible in some cases."<ref name=":3" />{{Rp|475}} The necessity of this conclusion is rejected by [[Biography:Fred Feldman (philosopher)|Fred Feldman]] who argues that "the conflict in question results from an inadequate formulation of the utilitarian doctrines; motives play no essential role in it&nbsp;... [and that]&nbsp;... [p]recisely the same sort of conflict arises even when MU is left out of consideration and AU is applied by itself."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Feldman |first=Fred |title=On the Consistency of Act- and Motive-Utilitarianism: A Reply to Robert Adams |journal=Philosophical Studies |volume=70 |issue=2 |date=May 1993 |pages=211–12 |doi=10.1007/BF00989590 |s2cid=170691423 }}</ref> Instead, [[Biography:Fred Feldman (philosopher)|Feldman]] proposes a variant of act utilitarianism that results in there being no conflict between it and motive utilitarianism.

== Criticisms and responses ==
Because utilitarianism is not a single theory, but rather a cluster of related theories that have been developed over two hundred years, criticisms can be made for different reasons and have different targets.

===Quantifying utility===
A common objection to utilitarianism is the inability to quantify, compare, or measure happiness or well-being. Rachael Briggs writes in the ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]'':<ref>{{citation|last1=Briggs|first1=Rachael |title=Normative Theories of Rational Choice: Expected Utility |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor=Edward N. Zalta |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2017/entries/rationality-normative-utility/ |year=2017 |edition=Spring 2017 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=15 November 2017}}</ref>

{{blockquote|One objection to this interpretation of utility is that there may not be a single good (or indeed any good) which rationality requires us to seek. But if we understand "utility" broadly enough to include all potentially desirable ends—pleasure, knowledge, friendship, health and so on—it's not clear that there is a unique correct way to make the tradeoffs between different goods so that each outcome receives a utility. There may be no good answer to the question of whether the life of an ascetic monk contains more or less good than the life of a happy libertine—but assigning utilities to these options forces us to compare them.}}

Utility understood this way is a personal preference, in the absence of any objective measurement.

===Utility ignores justice===
As Rosen (2003) has pointed out, claiming that act utilitarians are not concerned about having rules is to set up a "[[Straw man|straw man]]".<ref name="Rosen, Frederick 2003, p. 132" /> Similarly, [[Biography:R. M. Hare|R.M. Hare]] refers to "the crude caricature of act utilitarianism which is the only version of it that many philosophers seem to be acquainted with."<ref>Hare, R. M. (1981) Moral Thinking. Oxford Univ. Press, p. 36</ref> Given what Bentham says about second order evils,<ref>Bentham, Jeremy (2009) Theory of Legislation. General Books LLC, p. 58</ref> it would be a serious misrepresentation to say that he and similar act utilitarians would be prepared to punish an innocent person for the greater good. Nevertheless, whether they would agree or not, this is what critics of utilitarianism claim is entailed by the theory.

==== "Sheriff scenario" ====

A classic version of this criticism was given by [[Biography:Henry John McCloskey|H. J. McCloskey]] in his 1957 "sheriff scenario":<ref name=McCloskey1957/>
{{blockquote|Suppose that a sheriff were faced with the choice either of framing a Negro for a rape that had aroused hostility to the Negroes (a particular Negro generally being believed to be guilty but whom the sheriff knows not to be guilty)—and thus preventing serious anti-Negro riots which would probably lead to some loss of life and increased hatred of each other by whites and Negroes—or of hunting for the guilty person and thereby allowing the anti-Negro riots to occur, while doing the best he can to combat them. In such a case the sheriff, if he were an extreme utilitarian, would appear to be committed to framing the Negro.}}

By "extreme" utilitarian, McCloskey is referring to what later came to be called [[Philosophy:Act utilitarianism|''act'' utilitarianism]]. He suggests one response might be that the sheriff would not frame the innocent negro because of another rule: "do not punish an innocent person." Another response might be that the riots the sheriff is trying to avoid might have positive utility in the long run by drawing attention to questions of race and resources to help address tensions between the communities.

In a later article, McCloskey says:<ref>McCloskey, H.J. (1963) A Note on Utilitarian Punishment, in Mind, 72, 1963, p. 599</ref>
{{blockquote|Surely the utilitarian must admit that whatever the facts of the matter may be, it is logically possible that an 'unjust' system of punishment—e.g. a system involving collective punishments, retroactive laws and punishments, or punishments of parents and relations of the offender—may be more useful than a 'just' system of punishment?}}

==== ''The Brothers Karamazov'' ====

An older form of this argument was presented by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in his book ''The Brothers Karamazov'', in which Ivan challenges his brother Alyosha to answer his question:<ref>{{cite web|date=2011-02-15|title=The Dostoevsky Dilemma for Religious Ethics &#124; Center for Inquiry|url=https://centerforinquiry.org/blog/the_dostoevsky_dilemma_for_religious_ethics/}}</ref> <blockquote>Tell me straight out, I call on you—answer me: imagine that you yourself are building the edifice of human [[Philosophy:Destiny|destiny]] with the object of making people happy in the finale, of giving them peace and rest at last, but for that you must inevitably and unavoidably torture just one tiny creature, [one child], and raise your edifice on the foundation of her unrequited tears—would you agree to be the architect on such conditions?&nbsp;... And can you admit the idea that the people for whom you are building would agree to accept their happiness on the unjustified blood of a tortured child, and having accepted it, to remain forever happy?</blockquote>

=== Predicting consequences ===
Some argue that it is impossible to do the calculation that utilitarianism requires because consequences are inherently unknowable. [[Biography:Daniel Dennett|Daniel Dennett]] describes this as the "Three Mile Island effect".<ref>Dennett, Daniel (1995), ''Darwin's Dangerous Idea'', Simon & Schuster, p. 498 {{ISBN|0-684-82471-X}}.</ref> Dennett points out that not only is it impossible to assign a precise utility value to the incident, it is impossible to know whether, ultimately, the near-meltdown that occurred was a good or bad thing. He suggests that it would have been a good thing if plant operators learned lessons that prevented future serious incidents.

Russell Hardin (1990) rejects such arguments. He argues that it is possible to distinguish the moral impulse of utilitarianism (which is "to define the right as good consequences and to motivate people to achieve these") from our ability to correctly apply rational principles that, among other things, "depend on the perceived facts of the case and on the particular moral actor's mental equipment."<ref>{{cite book |last=Hardin |first=Russell |title=Morality within the Limits of Reason |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=May 1990 |page=3 |isbn=978-0-226-31620-8}}</ref> The fact that the latter is limited and can change does not mean that the former has to be rejected. "If we develop a better system for determining relevant causal relations so that we are able to choose actions that better produce our intended ends, it does not follow that we then must change our ethics. The moral impulse of utilitarianism is constant, but our decisions under it are contingent on our knowledge and scientific understanding."<ref name="Hardin 1990 4"/>

From the beginning, utilitarianism has recognized that certainty in such matters is unobtainable and both Bentham and Mill said that it was necessary to rely on the ''tendencies'' of actions to bring about consequences. [[Biography:G. E. Moore|G. E. Moore]], writing in 1903, said:<ref>{{cite book |last=Moore |first=G. E. |title=Principia Ethica |publisher=Prometheus Books UK |year=1903 |pages=203–4 |isbn=978-0-87975-498-3}}</ref>
{{blockquote|We certainly cannot hope directly to compare their effects except within a limited future; and all the arguments, which have ever been used in Ethics, and upon which we commonly act in common life, directed to shewing that one course is superior to another, are (apart from theological dogmas) confined to pointing out such probable immediate advantages{{nbsp}}...

An ethical law has the nature not of a scientific law but of a scientific ''prediction'': and the latter is always merely probable, although the probability may be very great.}}

===Demandingness objection===
[[Philosophy:Act utilitarianism|Act utilitarianism]] not only requires everyone to do what they can to maximize utility, but to do so without any favouritism. Mill said, "As between his own happiness and that of others, utilitarianism requires him to be as strictly impartial as a disinterested and benevolent spectator."<ref name="Mill, John Stuart"/> Critics say that this combination of requirements leads to utilitarianism making unreasonable demands. The well-being of strangers counts just as much as that of friends, family or self. "What makes this requirement so demanding is the gargantuan number of strangers in great need of help and the indefinitely many opportunities to make sacrifices to help them."<ref>{{cite book |last=Hooker |first=Brad |editor-first=Timothy |editor-last=Chappell |title=The Problem of Moral Demandingness: new philosophical essays |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |date=2011 |page=151 |chapter=Chapter 8: The Demandingness Objection |isbn=978-0-230-21940-3}}</ref> As [[Biography:Shelly Kagan|Shelly Kagan]] says, "Given the parameters of the actual world, there is no question that&nbsp;... (maximally)&nbsp;... promoting the good would require a life of hardship, self-denial, and austerity&nbsp;... a life spent promoting the good would be a severe one indeed."<ref>{{cite book |last=Kagan |first=Shelly |title=The Limits of Morality |series=Oxford Ethics Series |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=1991 |page=360 |isbn=978-0-19-823916-1}}</ref>

Hooker (2002) describes two aspects to the problem: act utilitarianism requires ''huge'' sacrifices from those who are relatively better off and also requires sacrifice of your own good even when the aggregate good will be only ''slightly'' increased.<ref name="Hooker 2002 152">{{cite book |last=Hooker |first=Brad |title=Ideal Code, Real World: A Rule-Consequentialist Theory of Morality |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=2002 |page=152 |isbn=978-0-19-925657-0}}</ref> Another way of highlighting the complaint is to say that in utilitarianism, "there is no such thing as morally permissible self-sacrifice that goes above and beyond the call of duty."<ref name="Hooker 2002 152"/> Mill was quite clear about this, "A sacrifice which does not increase, or tend to increase, the sum total of happiness, it considers as wasted."<ref name="Mill, John Stuart"/>

One response to the problem is to accept its demands. This is the view taken by [[Biography:Peter Singer|Peter Singer]], who says:<ref>{{cite book|last=Singer|first=Peter|title=Practical Ethics|date=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-70768-8|edition=3rd|pages=202–3}}</ref><blockquote>No doubt we do instinctively prefer to help those who are close to us. Few could stand by and watch a child drown; many can ignore the avoidable deaths of children in Africa or India. The question, however, is not what we usually do, but what we ought to do, and it is difficult to see any sound moral justification for the view that distance, or community membership, makes a crucial difference to our obligations.</blockquote>Others argue that a moral theory that is so contrary to our deeply held moral convictions must either be rejected or modified.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hooker |first=Brad |editor-first=Timothy |editor-last= Chappell |title=The problem of moral demandingness: new philosophical essays |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |date=2011 |page=148 |chapter=Chapter 8: The Demandingness Objection |isbn=978-0-230-21940-3}}</ref> There have been various attempts to modify utilitarianism to escape its seemingly over-demanding requirements.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kagan|first= Shelly |title=Does Consequentialism Demand too Much? Recent Work on the Limits of Obligation |journal= Philosophy & Public Affairs |volume=13 |issue=3 |date=1984 |pages=239–54 |jstor=2265413}}</ref> One approach is to drop the demand that utility be maximized. In ''Satisficing Consequentialism'', Michael Slote argues for a form of utilitarianism where "an act might qualify as morally right through having good enough consequences, even though better consequences could have been produced."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Slote|first= Michael |title= Satisficing Consequentialism |journal= Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes |volume=58 |pages= 139–176 |year=1984 |jstor=4106846|doi= 10.1093/aristoteliansupp/58.1.139 }}</ref> One advantage of such a system is that it would be able to accommodate the notion of [[Philosophy:Supererogation|supererogatory]] actions.

[[Biography:Samuel Scheffler|Samuel Scheffler]] takes a different approach and amends the requirement that everyone be treated the same.<ref>{{cite book |last=Scheffler |first=Samuel |title=The Rejection of Consequentialism: A Philosophical Investigation of the Considerations Underlying Rival Moral Conceptions |edition=2nd |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=August 1994 |isbn = 978-0-19-823511-8}}</ref> In particular, Scheffler suggests that there is an "agent-centered [[Social:Prerogative|prerogative]]" such that when the overall utility is being calculated it is permitted to count our own interests more heavily than the interests of others. Kagan suggests that such a procedure might be justified on the grounds that "a general requirement to promote the good would lack the motivational underpinning necessary for genuine moral requirements" and, secondly, that personal independence is necessary for the existence of commitments and close personal relations and that "the value of such commitments yields a positive reason for preserving within moral theory at least some moral independence for the personal point of view."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kagan|first= Shelly |title=Does Consequentialism Demand too Much? Recent Work on the Limits of Obligation |journal= Philosophy & Public Affairs |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages= 239–254 |date=Summer 1984 |jstor=2265413}}</ref>

Robert Goodin takes yet another approach and argues that the demandingness objection can be "blunted" by treating utilitarianism as a guide to public policy rather than one of individual morality. He suggests that many of the problems arise under the traditional formulation because the conscientious utilitarian ends up having to make up for the failings of others and so contributing more than their fair share.<ref>{{cite book |last=Goodin |first=Robert E. |title=Utilitarianism as a Public Philosophy |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1995 |page=66 |isbn=978-0-521-46806-0}}</ref>

Gandjour specifically considers market situations and analyses whether individuals who act in markets may produce a utilitarian optimum. He lists several demanding conditions that need to be satisfied: individuals need to display instrumental rationality, markets need to be perfectly competitive, and income and goods need to be redistributed.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=GANDJOUR |first1=Afschin |title=Is it Rational to Pursue Utilitarianism? |journal=Ethical Perspectives |date=30 June 2007 |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=139–158 |doi=10.2143/EP.14.2.2023965}}</ref>

Harsanyi argues that the objection overlooks the fact that "people attach considerable utility to freedom from unduly burdensome moral obligations&nbsp;... most people will prefer a society with a more relaxed moral code, and will feel that such a society will achieve a higher level of average utility—even if adoption of such a moral code should lead to some losses in economic and cultural accomplishments (so long as these losses remain within tolerable limits). This means that utilitarianism, if correctly interpreted, will yield a moral code with a standard of acceptable conduct very much below the level of highest moral perfection, leaving plenty of scope for supererogatory actions exceeding this minimum standard."<ref>{{cite journal |last= Harsanyi |first= John C. |title= Can the Maximin Principle Serve as a Basis for Morality? A Critique of John Rawls's Theory A Theory of Justice by John Rawls | journal=American Political Science Review |volume=69 |issue=2 |pages= 594–606 |date=June 1975 |jstor=1959090 |doi=10.2307/1959090|s2cid= 118261543 }}</ref>

=== Aggregating utility ===
The objection that "utilitarianism does not take seriously the distinction between persons" came to prominence in 1971 with the publication of [[Biography:John Rawls|John Rawls]]' ''[[Social:A Theory of Justice|A Theory of Justice]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rawls|first=John|title=A Theory of Justice|date=2005|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-01772-6|page=27}}</ref> The concept is also important in [[Philosophy:Animal rights|animal rights]] advocate Richard Ryder's rejection of utilitarianism, in which he talks of the "boundary of the individual", through which neither pain nor pleasure may pass.<ref>Ryder, Richard D. ''Painism: A Modern Morality''. Centaur Press, 2001. pp. 27–29</ref>

However, a similar objection was noted in 1970 by [[Biography:Thomas Nagel|Thomas Nagel]], who claimed that [[Philosophy:Consequentialism|consequentialism]] "treats the desires, needs, satisfactions, and dissatisfactions of distinct persons as if they were the desires, etc., of a mass person;"<ref>{{cite book|last=Nagel|first=Thomas|title=The Possibility of Altruism|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0-691-02002-0|edition=New|page=134}}</ref> and even earlier by [[Biography:David Gauthier|David Gauthier]], who wrote that utilitarianism supposes that "mankind is a super-person, whose greatest satisfaction is the objective of moral action.&nbsp;... But this is absurd. Individuals have wants, not mankind; individuals seek satisfaction, not mankind. A person's satisfaction is not part of any greater satisfaction."<ref>{{cite book |last=Gauthier |first=David |title=Practical Reasoning: The Structure and Foundations of Prudential and Moral Arguments and Their Exemplification in Discourse |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1963 |page=126 |isbn= 978-0-19-824190-4}}</ref> Thus, the aggregation of utility becomes futile as both pain and happiness are intrinsic to and inseparable from the consciousness in which they are felt, rendering impossible the task of adding up the various pleasures of multiple individuals.

A response to this criticism is to point out that whilst seeming to resolve some problems it introduces others. Intuitively, there are many cases where people do want to take the numbers involved into account. As [[Biography:Alastair Norcross|Alastair Norcross]] has said:<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Norcross|first1=Alastair|year=2009|title=Two Dogmas of Deontology: Aggregation, Rights and the Separateness of Persons|url=http://homepage.mac.com/anorcross/papers/2Dogmasdeontology.pdf|url-status=dead|journal=Social Philosophy and Policy|volume=26|pages=81–82|doi=10.1017/S0265052509090049|s2cid=45454555|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091127084839/http://homepage.mac.com/anorcross/papers/2Dogmasdeontology.pdf|archive-date=27 November 2009|access-date=2012-06-29}}</ref><blockquote>[S]uppose that Homer is faced with the painful choice between saving Barney from a burning building or saving both Moe and Apu from the building&nbsp;... it is clearly better for Homer to save the larger number, precisely because it is a larger number.&nbsp;... Can anyone who really considers the matter seriously honestly claim to believe that it is worse that one person die than that the entire [[Philosophy:Sentience|sentient]] population of the universe be severely mutilated? Clearly not.</blockquote>It may be possible to uphold the distinction between persons whilst still aggregating utility, if it accepted that people can be influenced by [[Philosophy:Empathy|empathy]].<ref>In [http://philosophynow.org/issues/100/Moral_Laws_of_the_Jungle Moral Laws of the Jungle (link to ''Philosophy Now'' magazine)], Iain King argues: "The way I reconcile my interests with those of other people is not for all of us to pour everything we care about into a pot then see which of the combination of satisfied wants would generate the most happiness (benefit). If we did that, I could be completely outnumbered... No, the way we reconcile interests is through empathy. Empathy is one-to-one, since we only imagine ourselves in the mind of one other person at a time. Even when I empathise with 'the people' here... I am really imagining what it is like to be just one woman. I cannot imagine myself to be more than one person at a time, and neither can you." Link accessed 2014-01-29.</ref> This position is advocated by [[Biography:Iain King|Iain King]],<ref>{{cite book|last=King|first=Iain|title=How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time|title-link=How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time|publisher=Continuum|year=2008|isbn=978-1-84706-347-2|page=225}}</ref> who has suggested the [[Biology:Evolution|evolution]]ary basis of empathy means humans can take into account the interests of other individuals, but only on a one-to-one basis, "since we can only imagine ourselves in the mind of one other person at a time."<ref>This quote is from Iain King's article in issue 100 of Philosophy Now magazine, [http://philosophynow.org/issues/100/Moral_Laws_of_the_Jungle Moral Laws of the Jungle (link)], accessed 29 January 2014.</ref> King uses this insight to adapt utilitarianism, and it may help reconcile Bentham's philosophy with [[Philosophy:Deontological ethics|deontology]] and [[Philosophy:Virtue ethics|virtue ethics]].<ref name="24 and Philosophy King">{{cite web|title=24 and Philosophy|author=Chandler Brett|url=http://andphilosophy.com/2014/07/16/24-and-philosophy|publisher=Blackwell|date=2014-07-16|access-date=2019-12-27}}</ref><ref name="MedicalEthics">{{cite book|first=Eldo|last=Frezzo |title=Medical Ethics: A Reference Guide|publisher= Routledge | date=2018-10-25|isbn=978-1-138-58107-4|page=5}}</ref><ref name="Zuckerman">{{cite book|first=Phil|last= Zuckerman |title=What it Means to be Moral|publisher= Published by Counterpoint | date=2019-09-10 |isbn=978-1-64009-274-7|page=21}}</ref>

Philosopher John Taurek also argued that the idea of adding happiness or pleasures across persons is quite unintelligible and that the numbers of persons involved in a situation are morally irrelevant.<ref>John M. Taurek, "Should the Numbers Count?", ''Philosophy and Public Affairs'', 6:4 (Summer 1977), pp. 293–316.</ref> Taurek's basic concern comes down to this: we cannot explain what it means to say that things would be five times worse if five people die than if one person dies. "I cannot give a satisfactory account of the meaning of judgments of this kind," he wrote (p.&nbsp;304). He argues that each person can only lose one person's happiness or pleasures. There is not five times more loss of happiness or pleasure when five die: who would be feeling this happiness or pleasure? "Each person's potential loss has the same significance to me, only as a loss to that person alone. because, by hypothesis, I have an equal concern for each person involved, I am moved to give each of them an equal chance to be spared his loss" (p.&nbsp;307). [[Biography:Derek Parfit|Derek Parfit]] (1978) and others have criticized Taurek's line,<ref>[[Biography:Derek Parfit|Parfit, Derek]]. 1978. "Innumerate Ethics." ''Philosophy & Public Affairs'' 7(4):285–301.</ref><ref>[[Biography:Frances Kamm|Kamm, Frances Myrna]]. 1985. "Equal Treatment and Equal Chances." ''Philosophy & Public Affairs'' 14(2):177–94.</ref><ref>Kavka, Gregory S. 1979. "The Numbers Should Count", ''Philosophical Studies'' 36(3):285–94.</ref> and it continues to be discussed.<ref>Otsuka, Michael. 2004. "Skepticism about Saving the Greater Number." ''Philosophy & Public Affairs'' 32(4):413–26.</ref><ref>Lawlor, Rob. 2006. "Taurek, Numbers and Probabilities." ''Ethical Theory and Moral Practice'' 9(2):149–66.</ref>

===Calculating utility is self-defeating===
An early criticism, which was addressed by Mill, is that if time is taken to calculate the best course of action it is likely that the opportunity to take the best course of action will already have passed. Mill responded that there had been ample time to calculate the likely effects:<ref name="Mill, John Stuart">{{cite web |url=http://www.utilitarianism.com/mill2.htm |title=Utilitarianism, Chapter 2 |author=Mill, John Stuart |access-date=24 June 2012}}</ref>
{{blockquote|[N]amely, the whole past duration of the human species. During all that time, mankind have been learning by experience the tendencies of actions; on which experience all the prudence, as well as all the morality of life, are dependent...It is a strange notion that the acknowledgment of a first principle is inconsistent with the admission of secondary ones. To inform a traveller respecting the place of his ultimate destination, is not to forbid the use of landmarks and direction-posts on the way. The proposition that happiness is the end and aim of morality, does not mean that no road ought to be laid down to that goal, or that persons going thither should not be advised to take one direction rather than another. Men really ought to leave off talking a kind of nonsense on this subject, which they would neither talk nor listen to on other matters of practical concernment.|author=|title=|source=}}

More recently, Hardin has made the same point. "It should embarrass philosophers that they have ever taken this objection seriously. Parallel considerations in other realms are dismissed with eminently good sense. Lord Devlin notes, 'if the reasonable man "worked to rule" by perusing to the point of comprehension every form he was handed, the commercial and administrative life of the country would creep to a standstill.{{'"}}<ref name="Hardin 1990 4">{{cite book |last=Hardin |first=Russell |title=Morality within the Limits of Reason |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=May 1990 |page=4 |isbn=978-0-226-31620-8}}</ref>

It is such considerations that lead even act utilitarians to rely on "rules of thumb", as [[Biography:J. J. C. Smart|Smart]] (1973) has called them.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Smart|first1=J. J. C.|url=https://archive.org/details/utilitarianismfo00smar|title=Utilitarianism: For and Against|last2=Williams|first2=Bernard|date=January 1973|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-09822-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/utilitarianismfo00smar/page/42 42]|url-access=registration}}</ref>

===Special obligations criticism===

One of the oldest criticisms of utilitarianism is that it ignores our special obligations. For example, if we were given the choice between saving two random people or our mother, most would choose to save their mothers. According to utilitarianism, such a natural action is immoral. The first to respond to this was an early utilitarian and friend of [[Biography:Jeremy Bentham|Jeremy Bentham]] named [[Biography:William Godwin|William Godwin]], who held in his work ''Enquiry Concerning Political Justice'' that such personal needs should be disregarded in favour of the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Applying the utilitarian principle "that life ought to be preferred which will be most conducive to the general good" to the choice of saving one of two people, either "the illustrious Archbishop of Cambray" or his chambermaid, he wrote:<ref>{{cite web|title=Godwin, "Political Justice," Book 2, Chap. 2|url=http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Godwin/pj22.html}}</ref> <blockquote>Supposing the chambermaid had been my wife, my mother or my benefactor. That would not alter the truth of the proposition. The life of [the Archbishop] would still be more valuable than that of the chambermaid; and justice, pure, unadulterated justice, would still have preferred that which was most valuable.</blockquote>

===Criticisms of utilitarian value theory===

Utilitarianism's assertion that well-being is the only thing with [[Philosophy:Intrinsic value (ethics)|intrinsic moral value]] has been attacked by various critics. [[Biography:Thomas Carlyle|Thomas Carlyle]] derided "Benthamee Utility, virtue by Profit and Loss; reducing this God's-world to a dead brute Steam-engine, the infinite celestial Soul of Man to a kind of Hay-balance for weighing hay and thistles on, pleasures and pains on".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carlyle |first=Thomas |title=On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History |year=1841 |chapter=Lecture II. The Hero as Prophet. Mahomet: Islam. |chapter-url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1091/1091-h/1091-h.htm#link2H_4_0003}}</ref> [[Biography:Karl Marx|Karl Marx]], in ''Das Kapital'', criticises Bentham's utilitarianism on the grounds that it does not appear to recognise that people have different joys in different socioeconomic contexts:<ref>Das Kapital Volume 1, Chapter 24, endnote 50</ref>

<blockquote>With the driest naivete he takes the modern shopkeeper, especially the English shopkeeper, as the normal man. Whatever is useful to this queer normal man, and to his world, is absolutely useful. This yard-measure, then, he applies to past, present, and future. The Christian religion, e.g., is "useful," "because it forbids in the name of religion the same faults that the penal code condemns in the name of the law." Artistic criticism is "harmful," because it disturbs worthy people in their enjoyment of Martin Tupper, etc. With such rubbish has the brave fellow, with his motto, "nulla dies sine linea [no day without a line]", piled up mountains of books.</blockquote>

[[Biography:Pope John Paul II|Pope John Paul II]], following his [[Philosophy:Personalism|personalist philosophy]], argued that a danger of utilitarianism is that it tends to make persons, just as much as things, the object of use. "Utilitarianism", he wrote, "is a civilization of production and of use, a civilization of things and not of persons, a civilization in which persons are used in the same way as things are used."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_02021994_families_en.html |title=Letter to Families |access-date=1 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110405033300/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_02021994_families_en.html |archive-date=5 April 2011 }}</ref>

===Duty-based criticisms===
[[Biography:W. D. Ross|W. D. Ross]], speaking from the perspective  of his [[Philosophy:The Right and the Good#The Right|deontological pluralism]], acknowledges that there is a duty to promote the maximum of aggregate good, as utilitarianism demands. But, Ross contends, this is just one besides various other duties, like the duty to keep one's promises or to make amends for wrongful acts, which are ignored by the simplistic and reductive utilitarian outlook.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ross |first1=W. D. |title=The Right and the Good |date=2002 |orig-date=1930 |publisher=Clarendon Press |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/STRTRA-4}}</ref>{{rp|19}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Simpson |first1=David L. |title=William David Ross |url=https://iep.utm.edu/ross-wd/ |website=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |access-date=12 January 2021}}</ref>

[[Biography:Roger Scruton|Roger Scruton]] was a deontologist, and believed that utilitarianism did not give duty the place that it needed inside our ethical judgements. He asked us to consider the dilemma of Anna Karenina, who had to choose between her love of Vronsky and her duty towards her husband and her son. Scruton wrote, "Suppose Anna were to reason that it is better to satisfy two healthy young people and frustrate one old one than to satisfy one old person and frustrate two young ones, by a factor of 2.5 to 1: ergo I am leaving. What would we think, then, of her moral seriousness?"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Scruton |first1=Roger |title=On Human Nature |publisher=Princeton |date=2017 |page=96 |isbn=978-0-691-18303-9}}</ref>

===Baby farming===

In ''Innocence and Consequentialism'' (1996), Jacqueline Laing, a critic of utilitarianism, argues that utilitarianism has insufficient conceptual apparatus to comprehend the very idea of [[Philosophy:Innocence|innocence]], a feature central to any comprehensive ethical theory.<ref>Laing, Jacqueline A. (1997), "Innocence and Consequentialism" in Human Lives: Critical Essays on Consequentialist Bioethics, eds. J. A. Laing with D. S. Oderberg. London, Macmillan, pp. 196-224</ref> {{anchor|Baby farming}}In particular, [[Biography:Peter Singer|Peter Singer]] on her view, cannot without contradicting himself reject baby farming (a thought experiment that involves mass-producing deliberately brain-damaged children for live birth for the greater good of organ harvesting) and at the same time hold on to his "personism" a term coined by [[Biography:Jenny Teichman|Jenny Teichman]] to describe his fluctuating (and Laing says, irrational and discriminatory) theory of human moral value. His explanation that baby farming undermines attitudes of care and concern for the very young, can be applied to babies and the unborn (both 'non-persons' who may be killed, on his view) and contradicts positions that he adopts elsewhere in his work.

== Additional considerations ==

===Average versus total happiness===
{{Main|Philosophy:Average and total utilitarianism}}
In ''[[Philosophy:The Methods of Ethics|The Methods of Ethics]]'', [[Biography:Henry Sidgwick|Henry Sidgwick]] asked, "Is it total or average happiness that we seek to make a maximum?"<ref>{{cite book |last=Sidgwick |first=Henry |title=Methods of Ethics |publisher=Hackett Publishing Co |edition=7th |date=1981 |page=xxxvi |isbn=978-0-915145-28-7}}</ref><ref name="Sidgwick 1981 415">{{cite book |last=Sidgwick |first=Henry |title=Methods of Ethics |publisher=Hackett Publishing Co |edition=7th |date=1981 |page=415 |isbn=978-0-915145-28-7}}</ref> Paley notes that, although he speaks of the happiness of communities, "the happiness of a people is made up of the happiness of single persons; and the quantity of happiness can only be augmented by increasing the number of the percipients, or the pleasure of their perceptions" and that if extreme cases, such as people held as slaves, are excluded the amount of happiness will usually be in proportion to the number of people. Consequently, "the decay of population is the greatest evil that a state can suffer; and the improvement of it the object which ought, in all countries, to be aimed at in preference to every other political purpose whatsoever."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/principlesmoral08palegoog/page/n4 |title=The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy |last=Paley |first=William |year=1785 |access-date =1 July 2012}}</ref> A similar view was expressed by Smart, who argued that, all other things being equal, a universe with two million happy people is better than a universe with only one million happy people.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smart |first1=J. J. C. |last2=Williams |first2=Bernard |title=Utilitarianism: For and Against |url=https://archive.org/details/utilitarianismfo00smar |url-access=registration |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=January 1973 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/utilitarianismfo00smar/page/27 27–28] |isbn=978-0-521-09822-9}}</ref>

Since Sidgwick raised the question it has been studied in detail and philosophers have argued that using either total or average happiness can lead to objectionable results.

According to [[Biography:Derek Parfit|Derek Parfit]], using total happiness falls victim to the [[Philosophy:Mere addition paradox|repugnant conclusion]], whereby large numbers of people with very low but non-negative utility values can be seen as a better goal than a population of a less extreme size living in comfort. In other words, according to the theory, it is a moral good to breed more people on the world for as long as total happiness rises.<ref>{{cite book |last=Parfit |first=Derek |title=Reasons and Persons |publisher=Oxford Paperbacks |date=January 1986 |page=[https://archive.org/details/reasonspersons00parf/page/388 388] |isbn=978-0-19-824908-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/reasonspersons00parf/page/388 }}</ref>

On the other hand, measuring the utility of a population based on the average utility of that population avoids Parfit's repugnant conclusion but causes other problems. For example, bringing a moderately happy person into a very happy world would be seen as an immoral act; aside from this, the theory implies that it would be a moral good to eliminate all people whose happiness is below average, as this would raise the average happiness.<ref>{{cite book |last=Shaw |first=William |title=Contemporary Ethics: Taking Account of Utilitarianism |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |date=November 1998 |pages=31–35 |isbn=978-0-631-20294-3}}</ref>

William Shaw suggests that the problem can be avoided if a distinction is made between potential people, who need not concern us, and actual future people, who should concern us. He says, "utilitarianism values the happiness of people, not the production of units of happiness. Accordingly, one has no positive obligation to have children. However, if you have decided to have a child, then you have an obligation to give birth to the happiest child you can."<ref>{{cite book |last=Shaw |first=William |title=Contemporary Ethics: Taking Account of Utilitarianism |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |date=November 1998 |page=34 |isbn=978-0-631-20294-3}}</ref>

===Motives, intentions, and actions===
Utilitarianism is typically taken to assess the rightness or wrongness of an action by considering just the consequences of that action. Bentham very carefully distinguishes motive from [[Philosophy:Intention|intention]] and says that motives are not in themselves good or bad but can be referred to as such on account of their tendency to produce pleasure or pain. He adds that, "from every kind of motive, may proceed actions that are good, others that are bad, and others that are indifferent."<ref>{{cite book |last=Bentham |first=Jeremy |title=An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation |series=Dover Philosophical Classics |publisher=Dover Publications |date=January 2009 |page=102 |isbn=978-0-486-45452-8}}</ref> Mill makes a similar point<ref>{{cite book |last=Mill |first=John Stuart |editor-first=John |editor-last=Robson |title=Collected Works, volume 31 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=1981 |page=51 |chapter=Autobiography |isbn=978-0-7100-0718-6}}</ref> and explicitly says that "motive has nothing to do with the morality of the action, though much with the worth of the agent. He who saves a fellow creature from drowning does what is morally right, whether his motive be duty, or the hope of being paid for his trouble."<ref name="Mill 1998 65">{{cite book |last=Mill |first=John Stuart |editor-first=Roger |editor-last=Crisp |title=Utilitarianism |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1998 |page=65 |isbn=978-0-19-875163-2}}</ref>

However, with intention the situation is more complex. In a footnote printed in the second edition of ''Utilitarianism'', Mill says: "the morality of the action depends entirely upon the intention—that is, upon what the agent wills to do."<ref name="Mill 1998 65"/> Elsewhere, he says, "Intention, and motive, are two very different things. But it is the intention, that is, the foresight of consequences, which constitutes the moral rightness or wrongness of the act."<ref>{{cite book |last=Mill |first=John Stuart |editor-first=John |editor-last=Robson |title=Collected Works, volume 31 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=1981 |pages=252–53 |chapter=Comments upon James Mill's Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind |isbn= 978-0-7100-0718-6}} and as quoted by {{cite journal |last1=Ridge |first1=Michael |year=2002 |title=Mill's Intentions and Motives |journal=Utilitas |volume=14 |pages=54–70 |doi= 10.1017/S0953820800003393|hdl=20.500.11820/deb5b261-303a-4395-9ea4-4a9367e7592b |s2cid=58918919 |url=https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/11822135/Mill_s_Intentions_and_Motives.pdf }}</ref>

The correct interpretation of Mill's footnote is a matter of some debate. The difficulty in interpretation centres around trying to explain why, since it is consequences that matter, intentions should play a role in the assessment of the morality of an action but motives should not. One possibility "involves supposing that the 'morality' of the act is one thing, probably to do with the praiseworthiness or blameworthiness of the agent, and its rightness or wrongness another."<ref name="Mill's Puzzling Footnote">{{cite journal |last1=Dancy |first1=Jonathan |year=2000 |title=Mill's Puzzling Footnote |journal=Utilitas |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=219–22 |doi= 10.1017/S095382080000279X|s2cid=145777437 }}</ref> [[Biography:Jonathan Dancy|Jonathan Dancy]] rejects this interpretation on the grounds that Mill is explicitly making intention relevant to an assessment of the act not to an assessment of the agent.

An interpretation given by [[Biography:Roger Crisp|Roger Crisp]] draws on a definition given by Mill in ''[[Philosophy:A System of Logic|A System of Logic]]'', where he says that an "intention to produce the effect, is one thing; the effect produced in consequence of the intention, is another thing; the two together constitute the action."<ref>{{cite book |last=Mill |first=John Stuart |title=A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive |series=Classic Reprint |publisher=Forgotten Books |date=February 2011 |page=51 |isbn=978-1-4400-9082-0}}</ref> Accordingly, whilst two actions may outwardly appear to be the same they will be different actions if there is a different intention. Dancy notes that this does not explain why intentions count but motives do not.

A third interpretation is that an action might be considered a complex action consisting of several stages and it is the intention that determines which of these stages are to be considered part of the action. Although this is the interpretation favoured by Dancy, he recognizes that this might not have been Mill's own view, for Mill "would not even allow that 'p & q' expresses a complex proposition. He wrote in his ''System of Logic'' I iv. 3, of 'Caesar is dead and Brutus is alive', that 'we might as well call a street a complex house, as these two propositions a complex proposition'."<ref name="Mill's Puzzling Footnote"/>

Finally, whilst motives may not play a role in determining the morality of an action, this does not preclude utilitarians from fostering particular motives if doing so will increase overall happiness.

=== Other sentient beings ===
[[File:Peter Singer MIT Veritas.jpg|thumb|right|Peter Singer]]
In ''An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation'', Bentham wrote "the question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?"<ref name="BenthamIntroductiontothePrinciples">An Introduction to the Principals of Morals and Legislation, Jeremy Bentham, 1789 ("printed" in 1780, "first published" in 1789, "corrected by the Author" in 1823.) See Chapter I: Of the Principle of Utility.  For Bentham on animals, see Ch. XVII Note 122.</ref> Mill's distinction between higher and lower pleasures might suggest that he gave more status to humans. However, in his essay "Whewell on Moral Philosophy", Mill defends Bentham's position, calling it a 'noble anticipation', and writing: "Granted that any practice causes more pain to animals than it gives pleasure to man; is that practice moral or immoral? And if, exactly in proportion as human beings raise their heads out of the slough of selfishness, they do not with one voice answer 'immoral', let the morality of the principle of utility be for ever condemned."<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Mill |first1=J. S. |title=Whewell on Moral Philosophy |url=http://www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-c/mill01.pdf | journal=Collected Works |volume=10 | pages = 185–87 }}</ref>

[[Biography:Henry Sidgwick|Henry Sidgwick]] also considers the implications of utilitarianism for nonhuman animals. He writes: "We have next to consider who the 'all' are, whose happiness is to be taken into account. Are we to extend our concern to all the beings capable of pleasure and pain whose feelings are affected by our conduct? or are we to confine our view to human happiness? The former view is the one adopted by Bentham and Mill, and (I believe) by the Utilitarian school generally: and is obviously most in accordance with the universality that is characteristic of their principle&nbsp;... it seems arbitrary and unreasonable to exclude from the end, as so conceived, any pleasure of any sentient being."<ref>{{cite book |last=Sidgwick |first=Henry |title=Methods of Ethics |publisher=Hackett Publishing Co |edition=7th |date=1981 |page=414 |isbn=978-0-915145-28-7}}</ref>

Among contemporary utilitarian philosophers, Peter Singer is especially known for arguing that the well-being of all [[Philosophy:Sentience|sentient]] beings ought to be given [[Philosophy:Equal consideration of interests|equal consideration]]. Singer suggests that rights are conferred according to the level of a creature's self-awareness, regardless of their species. He adds that humans tend to be [[Philosophy:Speciesism|speciesist]] (discriminatory against non-humans) in ethical matters, and argues that, in utilitarianism, speciesism cannot be justified as there is no rational distinction that can be made between the suffering of humans and the suffering of nonhuman animals; all suffering ought to be reduced. Singer writes: "The racist violates the principle of equality by giving greater weight to the interests of members of his own race, when there is a clash between their interests and the interests of those of another race. Similarly the speciesist allows the interests of his own species to override the greater interests of members of other species. The pattern is the same in each case&nbsp;... Most human beings are speciesists."<ref>Peter Singer, ''Animal Liberation'', Chapter I, pp. 7–8, 2nd edition, 1990.</ref>

In his 1990 edition of ''Animal Liberation'', Peter Singer said that he no longer ate oysters and mussels, because although the creatures might not suffer, there was a possibility they may and it was easy to avoid eating them in any case.<ref>[http://www.wesleyan.edu/wsa/warn/singer_fish.htm Animal Liberation, Second Edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205080909/http://www.wesleyan.edu/wsa/warn/singer_fish.htm |date=5 December 2010 }}, Singer, Peter, 1975, 1990, excerpt, pp. 171–74, main passage on oysters, mussels, etc. p. 174 (last paragraph of this excerpt). And in a footnote in the actual book, Singer writes "My change of mind about mollusks stems from conversations with R.I. Sikora."</ref>

This view still might be contrasted with [[Biology:Deep ecology|deep ecology]], which holds that an intrinsic value is attached to all forms of life and nature, whether currently assumed to be sentient or not. According to utilitarianism, the forms of life that are unable to experience anything akin to either enjoyment or discomfort are denied moral status, because it is impossible to increase the happiness or reduce the suffering of something that cannot feel happiness or suffer. Singer writes:
<blockquote>The capacity for suffering and enjoying things is a prerequisite for having interests at all, a condition that must be satisfied before we can speak of interests in any meaningful way. It would be nonsense to say that it was not in the interests of a stone to be kicked along the road by a schoolboy. A stone does not have interests because it cannot suffer. Nothing that we can do to it could possibly make any difference to its welfare. A mouse, on the other hand, does have an interest in not being tormented, because it will suffer if it is. If a being suffers, there can be no moral justification for refusing to take that suffering into consideration. No matter what the nature of the being, the principle of equality requires that its suffering be counted equally with the like suffering—in so far as rough comparisons can be made—of any other being. If a being is not capable of suffering, or of experiencing enjoyment or happiness, there is nothing to be taken into account.</blockquote>

Thus, the moral value of one-celled organisms, as well as some multi-cellular organisms, and natural entities like a river, is only in the benefit they provide to sentient beings. Similarly, utilitarianism places no direct intrinsic value on [[Biology:Biodiversity|biodiversity]], although the benefits that biodiversity brings to sentient beings may mean that, in utilitarianism, biodiversity ought to be maintained in general.

In John Stuart Mill's essay "On Nature"<ref>{{cite web|title = Mill's "On Nature"|url = http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/users/philosophy/texts/mill_on.htm|website = www.lancaster.ac.uk|access-date = 2015-08-09|date = 1904}}</ref> he argues that the [[Philosophy:Wild animal suffering|welfare of wild animals]] is to be considered when making utilitarian judgments. Tyler Cowen argues that, if individual animals are carriers of utility, then we should consider limiting the predatory activity of carnivores relative to their victims: "At the very least, we should limit current subsidies to nature's carnivores."<ref name="Cowen2003">{{Cite journal | last1 = Cowen | first1 = T. | title = Policing Nature | editor1-last = c. Hargrove | editor1-first = Eugene | journal = Environmental Ethics | volume = 25 | issue = 2 | pages = 169–182 | doi = 10.5840/enviroethics200325231 | year = 2003 }}</ref>

==== Digital minds ====
{{further|Artificial consciousness|Philosophy:Utility monster|}}
[[Biography:Nick Bostrom|Nick Bostrom]] and Carl Shulman consider that, as advancements in [[Artificial intelligence|artificial intelligence]] continue, it will probably be possible to engineer digital minds that require less resources and have a much higher rate and intensity of subjective experience than humans. These "super-beneficiaries" could also be unaffected by hedonic adaptation. Nick Bostrom said that we should find "paths that will enable digital minds and biological minds to coexist, in a mutually beneficial way where all of these different forms can flourish and thrive".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fisher |first=Richard |title=The intelligent monster that you should let eat you |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201111-philosophy-of-utility-monsters-and-artificial-intelligence |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en}}</ref>

== Application to specific problems==
The concept has been applied towards [[Finance:Welfare economics|social welfare economics]], questions of [[Philosophy:Justice|justice]], the crisis of global poverty, the ethics of raising animals for food, and the importance of avoiding [[Unsolved:Global catastrophic risk|existential risks]] to humanity.<ref>{{cite web|last1=MacAskill|first1=William|last2=Meissner|first2=Darius|date=|title=Acting on Utilitarianism|url=https://www.utilitarianism.net/acting-on-utilitarianism|access-date=2021-02-11|website=Introduction to Utilitarianism|language=en-US}}</ref> In the context of lying, some utilitarians support white lies.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/lying/lying_1.shtml |title=Ethics - Lying |publisher=BBC |date=1970-01-01 |accessdate=2022-06-30}}</ref>

=== World poverty ===
An article in the ''[[Finance:American Economic Journal|American Economic Journal]]'' has addressed the issue of Utilitarian ethics within [[Philosophy:Redistribution of income and wealth|redistribution of wealth]]. The journal stated that taxation of the wealthy is the best way to make use of the disposable income they receive. This says that the money creates utility for the most people by funding government services.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Optimal Taxation of Height: A Case Study of Utilitarian Income Redistribution|author1=N. Gregory Mankiw|author2=Matthew Weinzierl|journal=American Economic Journal: Economic Policy|volume=2|issue=1|date=2010|pages=155–176|jstor = 25760055|doi=10.1257/pol.2.1.155|citeseerx=10.1.1.208.8375}}</ref> Many utilitarian philosophers, including [[Biography:Peter Singer|Peter Singer]] and [[Biography:Toby Ord|Toby Ord]], argue that inhabitants of developed countries in particular have an obligation to help to end extreme poverty across the world, for example by regularly donating some of their income to charity. Peter Singer, for example, argues that donating some of one's income to charity could help to save a life or cure somebody from a poverty-related illness, which is a much better use of the money as it brings someone in extreme poverty far more happiness than it would bring to oneself if one lived in relative comfort. However, Singer not only argues that one ought to donate a significant proportion of one's income to charity, but also that this money should be directed to the most cost-effective charities, in order to bring about the greatest good for the greatest number, consistent with utilitarian thinking.<ref>[http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_singer_the_why_and_how_of_effective_altruism Peter Singer: The why and how of effective altruism | Talk Video]. TED.com.</ref> Singer's ideas have formed the basis of the modern [[Effective altruism|effective altruism]] movement.

=== Social choice ===
{{Excerpt|Utilitarian rule|templates=0}}

==== Score voting ====
{{Excerpt|Score voting|paragraphs=1|templates=0|references=0}}

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=18em}}
* [[Philosophy:Mouvement Anti-Utilitariste dans les Sciences Sociales|Anti-Utilitarianism]]
* [[Philosophy:Appeal to consequences|Appeal to consequences]]
* [[Philosophy:Applied ethics|Applied ethics]]
* [[Bounded rationality]]
* Charity International
* [[Philosophy:Classical liberalism|Classical liberalism]]
* Collectivism and individualism
* [[Cost–benefit analysis]]
* [[Decision analysis]]
* Gross national happiness
* [[Happiness pump]]
* List of utilitarians
* [[Philosophy:Pleasure principle (psychology)|Pleasure principle (psychology)]]
* Probabilistic reasoning
* [[Social:Radicalism (historical)|Radicalism (historical)]]
* [[Philosophy:Relative utilitarianism|Relative utilitarianism]]
* [[Physics:Uncertainty|Uncertainty]]
* [[Philosophy:Utilitarian bioethics|Utilitarian bioethics]]
* [[Philosophy:Utilitarian cake-cutting|Utilitarian cake-cutting]]
* [[Philosophy:Utility monster|Utility monster]]
{{div col end}}

== References<!-- This article uses the Cite.php citation mechanism. If you would like more information on how to add footnotes to this article, please see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cite/Cite.php --> ==

=== Citations ===
{{reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
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* [[Biography:John Gay (philosopher)|Gay, John]]. 2002. "Concerning the Fundamental Principle of Virtue or Morality." In ''Moral Philosophy from Montaigne to Kant'', edited by J. B. Schneewind. {{wipe|Cambridge University Press}}. {{ISBN|978-0-521-00304-9}}.
* Goodin, Robert E. 1995. ''Utilitarianism as a Public Philosophy''. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-46806-0}}.
* Goodstein, Eban. 2011. "Ethics and Economics." Ch. 2 in ''Economics and the Environment''. [[Company:Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]]. {{ISBN|978-0-470-56109-6}}.
* Habib, Allen. [2008] 2014. "[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/promises/ Promises]." ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''.
* Halévy, Élie. 1966. ''The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism''. Beacon Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-101020-0}}.
* [[Biography:Everett Hall|Hall, Everett W.]] 1949. "The 'Proof' of Utility in Bentham and Mill." ''Ethics'' 60(1):1–18. {{doi|10.1086/290691}}. {{JSTOR|2378436}}.
* Hardin, Russell. 1990. ''Morality within the Limits of Reason''. [[Organization:University of Chicago Press|University of Chicago Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-226-31620-8}}.
* [[Biography:R. M. Hare|Hare, R. M.]] 1972–1973. "The Presidential Address: Principles." ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', New Series, 73:1–18. {{doi|10.1093/aristotelian/73.1.1}}. {{JSTOR|4544830}}.
* —— 1981. ''Moral thinking: its levels, method, and point''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-824660-2}}.
* [[Biography:John Harsanyi|Harsanyi, John C.]] 1977. "Morality and the theory of rational behavior." ''Social Research'' 44 (4):623–56. {{JSTOR|40971169}}.
** '''Reprinted''': 1982. "Morality and the theory of rational behaviour." Pp.&nbsp;39–62 in ''Utilitarianism and Beyond'', edited by A. Sen and [[Biography:Bernard Williams|B. Williams]]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-511-61196-4}}.
* —— 1975. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20200208114408/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1856/c47552ee8b57cfddc82e5e9f4a14d0c04940.pdf Can the Maximin Principle Serve as a Basis for Morality? A Critique of John Rawls's Theory of Justice]." ''American Political Science Review'' 69(2):594–606. {{doi|10.2307/1959090}}. {{JSTOR|1959090}}. {{S2CID|118261543}}.
* [[Biography:Brad Hooker|Hooker, Brad]]. 2002. ''Ideal Code, Real World: A Rule-Consequentialist Theory of Morality''. Clarendon Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-925657-0}}.
* —— 2011. "The Demandingness Objection." Ch. 8 in ''The problem of moral demandingness: new philosophical essays'', edited by T. Chappell. [[Company:Palgrave Macmillan|Palgrave Macmillan]]. {{ISBN|978-0-230-21940-3}}.
* [[Biography:David Hume|Hume, David]]. [1751] 2002. "An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals." In ''Moral Philosophy from Montaigne to Kant'', edited by J. B. Schneewind. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-00304-9}}.
* [[Biography:Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)|Hutcheson, Francis]]. [1725] 2002. "The Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue." In ''Moral Philosophy from Montaigne to Kant'', edited by J. B. Schneewind. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-00304-9}}.
* [[Biography:Shelly Kagan|Kagan, Shelly]]. 1991. ''The Limits of Morality'' (''Oxford Ethics Series''). Clarendon Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-823916-1}}.
* —— 1984. "Does Consequentialism Demand too Much? Recent Work on the Limits of Obligation." ''Philosophy & Public Affairs'' 13(3):239–54. {{JSTOR|2265413}}.
* [[Biography:David Lyons (philosopher)|Lyons, David]]. 1965. ''Forms and Limits of Utilitarianism''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-824197-3}}.
* McCloskey, H. J. 1957. "An Examination of Restricted Utilitarianism." ''Philosophical Review'' 66(4):466–85. {{doi|10.2307/2182745}}. {{JSTOR|2182745}}
* —— 1963. "A Note on Utilitarian Punishment." ''Mind'' 72(288):599. {{doi|10.1093/mind/LXXII.288.599}}. {{JSTOR|2251880}}.
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*{{cite book |last=Parfit |first=Derek |title=Reasons and Persons |publisher=Oxford Paperbacks |date=January 1986 |isbn=978-0-19-824908-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/reasonspersons00parf }}
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==Further reading==
* Broome, John. 1998. "[http://stafforini.com/docs/Broome%20-%20Modern%20utilitarianism.pdf Modern Utilitarianism]". Pp.&nbsp;651–56 in ''The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law'' 2, edited by P. Newman. London: Macmillan.
* Cornman, James, et al. 1992. ''Philosophical Problems and Arguments – An Introduction'' (4th ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Co.
* [[Biography:Jonathan Glover|Glover, Jonathan]]. 1977. ''Causing Death and Saving Lives''. Penguin Books. {{ISBN|978-0-14-022003-2}}. {{oclc|4468071}}
* Hansas, John. 2008. "Utilitarianism." Pp.&nbsp;518–19 in ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism]'', edited by R. Hamowy. Thousand Oaks, CA: [[Company:SAGE Publishing|SAGE]] / [[Organization:Cato Institute|Cato Institute]]. {{ISBN|978-1-4129-6580-4}}. {{doi|10.4135/9781412965811.n317}}. {{LCCN|2008009151}}. {{oclc|750831024}}.
* Harwood, Sterling. 2009. "Eleven Objections to Utilitarianism." Ch. 11 in ''Moral Philosophy: A Reader'' (4th ed.), edited by [[Biography:Louis Pojman|L. P. Pojman]] and P. Tramel. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett. {{ISBN|978-0-87220-962-6}}. {{oclc|488531841}}.
* Mackie, J. L. 1991. "Utilitarianism." Ch. 6 in ''Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong''. Penguin Books. {{ISBN|978-0-14-013558-9}}.
* Martin, Michael. 1970. "A Utilitarian Kantian Principle." ''Philosophical Studies'' 21:90–91.
* [[Biography:James Rachels|Rachels, James]], and Stuart Rachels. 2012. "The Utilitarian Approach" and "The Debate of Utilitarianism." Ch. 7 & 8 in ''[[Philosophy:The Elements of Moral Philosophy|The Elements of Moral Philosophy]]''. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. {{ISBN|978-0-07-803824-2}}.
* {{cite book |last = Scheffler |first = Samuel |title = Consequentialism and its Critics |year = 1988 | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-875073-4 }}
* Silverstein, Harry S. 1972. "A Defence of Cornman's Utilitarian Kantian Principle." ''Philosophical Studies'' 23:212–15.
* {{cite book |last=Singer |first=Peter |title =A Companion to Ethics |series=Blackwell Companions to Philosophy |year=1993 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=978-0-631-18785-1 |chapter=esp. Chapter 19 & 20, Consequentialism & The Utility and the Good }}
* [[Biography:Peter Singer|Singer, Peter]]. 1981. ''The Expanding Circle: Ethics and Sociobiology''. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. {{ISBN|0-374-15112-1}}
* —— 1993. "Consequentialism" and "The Utility and the Good." Ch. 19 & 20 in ''A Companion to Ethics'' (''Blackwell Companions to Philosophy''). [[Company:Wiley-Blackwell|Wiley-Blackwell]]. {{ISBN|978-0-631-18785-1}}.
* Stokes, Eric. 1959. ''The English Utilitarians and India''. Clarendon Press. {{oclc|930495493}}
* Sumner, L. Wayne. ''Abortion: A Third Way''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
* {{cite journal |last=Vergara |first=Francisco |url=http://fvergara.com/Halevy.pdf |title=A Critique of Elie Halévy: refutation of an important distortion of British moral philosophy |journal=Philosophy |volume=73 |pages=97–111 |year=1998 |doi=10.1017/s0031819197000144|s2cid=170370954 }}
*{{cite journal |last=Vergara |first=Francisco |url=http://www.fvergara.com/QUALITY.doc |title=Bentham and Mill on the 'Quality' of Pleasures |journal=Revue d'Études Benthamiennes |issue=9 |year=2011 |doi=10.4000/etudes-benthamiennes.422 |doi-access=free |author-mask=2}}
* {{cite book |last=Williams |first=Bernard |title=Morality: An Introduction to Ethics |year=1993 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn = 978-0-521-45729-3 |chapter=esp. Chapter 10, Utilitarianism }}
* [[Biography:Bernard Williams|Williams, Bernard]]. 1993. "Utilitarianism." Ch. 10 in ''Morality: An Introduction to Ethics''. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-45729-3}}.

==External links==
*[https://www.utilitarianism.net/ Introduction to Utilitarianism] An introductory online textbook on utilitarianism coauthored by [[Biography:William MacAskill|William MacAskill]].
*{{cite IEP |url-id=util-a-r |title=Act and Rule Utilitarianism |last=Nathanson |first=Stephen}}
*{{cite SEP |url-id=consequentialism |title=Consequentialism |last=Sinnott-Armstrong |first=Walter}}
*{{cite SEP |url-id=utilitarianism-history |title=The History of Utilitarianism |last=Driver |first=Julia}}
*[http://www.utilitarian.org/faq.html Utilitarian.org FAQ] A FAQ by Nigel Phillips on utilitarianism by a web site affiliated to [[Biography:David Pearce (philosopher)|David Pearce]].
*''[http://dragice.fr/utilitarianism/faq.html A Utilitiarian FAQ]'', by Ian Montgomerie.
*[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27597 ''The English Utilitarians'', Volume l] by Sir Leslie Stephen
*[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25788 ''The English Utilitarians'', Volume 2] by Sir Leslie Stephen
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130602162242/http://www.utilitarianism.net/ Utilitarian Philosophers] Large compendium of writings by and about the major utilitarian philosophers, both classic and contemporary.
*[http://www.rsrevision.com/Alevel/ethics/utilitarianism/index.htm Utilitarianism] A summary of classical utilitarianism, and modern alternatives, with application to ethical issues and criticisms.
*[https://www.utilitarianism.com/ Utilitarian Resources] Collection of definitions, articles and links.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081201003430/http://web.missouri.edu/~johnsonrn/utilnote.html Primer on the Elements and Forms of Utilitarianism] A convenient summary of the major points of utilitarianism.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090225000242/http://www.sethpayne.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/bentham.pdf Utilitarianism as Secondary Ethic] A concise review of Utilitarianism, its proponents and critics.
*[https://www.academia.edu/37366254/Little-known_objections_to_utilitarianism A summary of some little-known objections to utilitarianism]
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[[Category:Utilitarianism| ]]
[[Category:Social philosophy]]
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