What Is Utilitarianism?

Utilitarianism is a theory of morality, which advocates actions that foster happiness or

pleasure and opposes actions that cause unhappiness or harm. When directed toward making
social, economic, or political decisions, a utilitarian philosophy would aim for the betterment of
society as a whole. Utilitarianism would say that an action is right if it results in the happiness of
the greatest number of people in a society or a group.

"The greatest good for the greatest number" is a maxim of utilitarianism. Understanding
Utilitarianism Utilitarianism is a tradition of ethical philosophy that is associated with Jeremy
Bentham and John Stuart Mill, two late 18th- and 19th-century British philosophers, economists,
and political thinkers.

Utilitarianism holds that an action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it
tends to produce sadness, or the reverse of happiness—not just the happiness of the actor but that
of everyone affected by it. At work, you display utilitarianism when you take actions to ensure that
the office is a positive environment for your co-workers to be in, and then make it so for yourself.

The Three Generally Accepted Axioms of Utilitarianism State That

• Pleasure, or happiness, is the only thing that has intrinsic value.

• Actions are right if they promote happiness, and wrong if they promote unhappiness.

• Everyone's happiness counts equally. From the Founders of Utilitarianism Jeremy Bentham
describes his "greatest happiness principle" in Introduction to the Principles of Morals and
Legislation, a 1789 publication in which he writes: "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, as well as to determine what we shall do." John Stuart Mill had many years to absorb
and reflect on Jeremy Bentham's thoughts on utilitarianism by the time he published his own work,
Utilitarianism, in 1863. The key passage from this book: "The creed which accepts as the
foundation of morals utility, or the greatest happiness principle, holds that actions are right in
proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of
happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and
the privation of pleasure."
 KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Utilitarianism is a theory of morality, which advocates actions that foster happiness and opposes
actions that cause unhappiness.

• Utilitarianism promotes "the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people."

• When used in a socio-political construct, utilitarian ethics aims for the betterment of society as a
whole.

• Utilitarianism is a reason-based approach to determining right and wrong, but it has limitations.

WHEN CAN WE SAY THAT AN ACTION IS MORALLY RIGHT OR WRONG?

As you’ve gathered by now, morality is the sort of thing that isn’t testable by science. There
is no scientific instrument that measures moral rightness or wrongness. So you’ll have to decide
what’s reasonable to believe. Probably, you already have some beliefs in your worldview about
what you should and shouldn’t do. Maybe you just remember what your parents told you when
you were young, or maybe you just follow the laws where you live. But the problem is that those
ways of determining what’s right and wrong will only get you so far. What will you do when
you’re confronted with a moral choice that isn’t covered by the law, or that your parents never
mentioned?

The philosophy of morality is not so much about which actions are right and which ones
are wrong, as it is about what makes actions right or wrong. The central question of moral
philosophy is “where does morality come from?” You may never have thought about why you
think some actions are good and others are bad, but I’m sure that hasn’t stopped you from knowing
the difference when you see it, so how do you determine whether an action is right or wrong, good
or bad? I suspect you have some sort of system for deciding. Everyone does. Maybe it’s a set of
rules, maybe it’s a gut feeling, maybe something else. Where do you get your beliefs about
morality? In other words, where do you believe morality comes from? Here are some possibilities.

Culture

Certainly some people probably believe that morality comes from culture, that whatever is
commonly accepted in their culture is right, and whatever is commonly forbidden is wrong.

Religion

In a way that’s similar to culture, some people believe that actions that are permitted by their
religion are good, and those that are forbidden by their religion are bad. On their worldview, if
someone with this view wants to know whether an action is right or wrong, they can just consult
their religion’s sacred texts, or a religious expert.
Feelings

Probably a lot of people think that morality comes from inside themselves. They could claim that
they have certain emotional reactions to actions, and those feelings determine what is right or
wrong.

Pain and pleasure

This is a simple system for determining what is right or wrong might consider only the pain or
pleasure that actions produce. Actions that produce pain are wrong, and actions that produce
pleasure are right.

Interests

Everyone has interests—things they care about—and it would be reasonable for someone to say
that they should only have to be concerned with the things that they care about, and that benefit
them.

Rationality

Someone could say that morality comes from rationality, so whatever is rational is right, and
whatever is irrational is wrong.

Rights

Maybe you believe that everyone has certain basic, natural rights, and upholding those rights is
good, while violating them is bad.

Relationships

The most important thing to some people is their relationships with others and the bonds of care
between them. For them, good actions are ones that promote and sustain those relationships, and
bad actions are ones that damage them.

Character

You might believe that what makes an action right or wrong has to do with the person who does
it. Maybe you believe that good people do good things, bad people do bad things, and it’s the
character of the person doing the action that makes it right or wrong.