Britannica
Sources used in this answer
Why is comparing the happiness and suffering of different people difficult for utilitarians?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Utilitarianism
English philosopher and economist Jeremy Bentham's preserved skeleton in his own clothes and surmounted by a wax head, at University College London.
Comparing the happiness and suffering of different people is a significant challenge for utilitarians because it requires making interpersonal comparisons of value, which are often considered a practical, if not theoretical, impossibility.12
While Jeremy Bentham proposed a hedonic calculus to sum up units of pleasure and pain for everyone affected by an action, such precise measurement is difficult to achieve. Philosophers have identified several conceptual and practical hurdles that complicate this process:2
- Identifying Consequences: There is no consensus on what should be counted as a consequence of an action or how to assign value to those outcomes.1
- Defining Actions: Philosophers struggle to reach a consensus on what constitutes an "action" itself, and comparing alternative actions is difficult when they differ in duration or nature.1
- Subjectivity of Value: Beyond simple quantification, there are debates regarding the quality of pleasures and whether non-hedonistic values—such as knowledge or beauty—should be included in the calculation.3
Ultimately, while utilitarians must estimate which actions produce the best consequences, the complexity of human experience makes the objective measurement of aggregate happiness an ongoing challenge in normative ethics.12