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Why do utilitarians consider the effects of an action on everyone affected by it?

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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 consider the effects of an action on everyone affected by it because the core principle of utilitarianism is to promote the greatest net happiness or pleasure and minimize unhappiness or pain for all individuals involved, rather than just the person performing the action.1

This approach is rooted in the ethical doctrine of consequentialism, which evaluates the morality of an action based on its outcomes. Jeremy Bentham, a foundational figure in this tradition, argued that when weighing the consequences of an action, one must account for the pleasures and pains of everyone affected on an equal basis, famously stating, "Each to count for one, and none for more than one".12

By considering the impact on everyone, utilitarians aim to achieve an impartial assessment of an action's overall tendency to produce good or evil. This perspective rejects egoism—the pursuit of self-interest at the expense of others—and establishes a standard where the rightness of an act is determined by its contribution to the collective well-being.31