What's on my mind?

This theory is similar to Ethical Egoism but on a larger scale. If Ethical Egoism concerns on the individual then Utilitarianism concerns on the society.

Principle of utility: the greatest good for the greatest number of people. It is also called the greatest happiness principle.

Good here means happiness. Happiness is defined as pleasure or the absence of pain.

It is thus a form of consequentialism that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome.

Somewhat related to Machiavelli's "The end justifies the means."


The Jeremy Bentham (left photo) reduces utilitarianism into mathematical theory in which a person can calculate his pleasure. Bentham is more of quantitative.

John Stuart Mill (above photo) is a student of Bentham who argues that that cultural, intellectual and spiritual pleasures are of greater value than mere physical pleasure because the former would be valued higher than the latter by competent judges. A competent judge, according to Mill, is anyone who has experienced both the lower pleasures and the higher. His famous quote was, "it is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied". Mill focuses on spiritual pleasure. Mill is more of qualitative.


Jeremy Bentham = 100 person is better than 1 person
John Stuart Mill = 1 Einstein is better than 100 retarded children

There is more to physical pleasure.

critics of Utilitarianism

1. In the movie "The Island", cloning is justified by a utilitarian point of world view and so cloning is valid.
2. Judging actions solely in terms of their consequences is incompatible with a foundational and universally-binding concept of justice.
3. This theory can't solve real-world ethical problems when various inviolable principles collide, like triage or the rightness or otherwise of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
4. ethical theories should not be based on the greatest number. The least is as equal as the other. Everyone has the right to live so the end does not justify the means.