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How do utilitarians use happiness and suffering to evaluate actions?

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Jeremy Bentham: auto-icon — Utilitarianism English philosopher and economist Jeremy Bentham's preserved skeleton in his own clothes and surmounted by a wax head, at University College London.

Utilitarians evaluate the morality of actions by assessing their consequences, specifically aiming to maximize happiness or pleasure and minimize suffering or pain. This approach is rooted in the principle that these feelings possess intrinsic value and disvalue, serving as the ultimate standard for determining whether an act is right or wrong.1234

To apply this, utilitarians often weigh the outcomes of alternative actions. Classical thinkers like Jeremy Bentham proposed a "hedonic calculus," a theoretical method to sum units of pleasure and pain for everyone affected by an action to determine its overall tendency toward good or evil. While precise mathematical measurement is often viewed as impractical, utilitarians maintain that making interpersonal comparisons of these effects is necessary to choose the best course of action.32

Different branches of the philosophy refine this evaluation:
* Act Utilitarianism: Assesses the consequences of each individual action.4
* Rule Utilitarianism: Judges actions based on whether they conform to a rule that, if generally practiced, would produce the best consequences.4
* Negative Utilitarianism: Prioritizes the prevention or elimination of suffering over the increase of happiness.4