Utilitarianism

Introduction
The nature of utilitarianism
- Basic concepts
- Methodologies
- Criticisms
Historical survey
- Antecedents of utilitarianism among the ancients
- Growth of classical English utilitarianism
- Utilitarianism since the late 19th century
Effects of utilitarianism in other fields
Summary and evaluation

References & Edit History Related Topics

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utilitarianism summary

Related Questions

How did Francis Hutcheson anticipate the utilitarian idea of the greatest happiness for the greatest number?
How did Henry Sidgwick defend utilitarianism using common-sense morality?
How did Jeremy Bentham apply utilitarian ideas to legal reform?
How did Jeremy Bentham define the greatest happiness principle?
How did Jeremy Bentham explain the purpose of punishment?
How did Jeremy Bentham’s hedonic calculus attempt to compare pleasure and pain?
How did John Stuart Mill change Jeremy Bentham’s version of utilitarianism?
How did John Stuart Mill connect utilitarianism with justice and honesty?
How did John Stuart Mill use utilitarian arguments to defend freedom of speech?
How did R.M. Hare combine act-consequentialist and rule-consequentialist thinking?
How did utilitarian thought influence economics and welfare economics?
How did utilitarianism become a movement for reforming social institutions in the 19th century?
How did utilitarianism influence ideas about democracy and individual liberty?
How do rules of thumb guide an act utilitarian when consequences are difficult to calculate?
How do utilitarians answer the objection that occasional lying could have good consequences?
How do utilitarians use happiness and suffering to evaluate actions?
How does act utilitarianism evaluate an individual action?
How does rule utilitarianism evaluate moral rules?
How does the utilitarian theory of punishment differ from the retributive theory of punishment?
How does utilitarianism differ from deontological ethics?
How does utilitarianism differ from ethical egoism?
What are the critical and intuitive levels of moral thinking in R.M. Hare’s theory?
What is negative utilitarianism’s main focus?
What problem did David Lyons identify for rule utilitarianism?
Which factors did Jeremy Bentham think should be considered when measuring pleasure and pain?
Why can different assumptions about human nature lead utilitarians to support different forms of government?
Why did Henry Sidgwick reject Bentham’s theory that people are motivated entirely by pleasure and pain?
Why did J.J.C. Smart criticize rule consequentialism as rule-worship?
Why did James Mill support representative government and universal male suffrage?
Why did Jeremy Bentham consider pleasure and pain the main guides of human action?
Why did Jeremy Bentham say that each person should count equally in moral decisions?
Why did John Stuart Mill say that it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied?
Why did John Stuart Mill support women’s suffrage and public education?
Why did John Stuart Mill think people should usually follow moral rules instead of calculating consequences every time?
Why did critics describe Jeremy Bentham’s philosophy as suitable for pigs?
Why did early utilitarians often oppose government interference in trade and industry?
Why did later utilitarians support government action to correct abuses of private enterprise?
Why do critics argue that utilitarianism can sometimes permit lying or breaking promises?
Why do critics argue that utilitarianism may allow ends to justify harmful means?
Why do utilitarians consider the effects of an action on everyone affected by it?
Why is G.E. Moore’s approach often called pluralistic consequentialism?
Why is Jeremy Bentham considered the founder of modern utilitarianism?
Why is comparing the happiness and suffering of different people difficult for utilitarians?
Why is it difficult to predict all the consequences of an action?
Why might rule utilitarianism oppose stealing even when one theft appears helpful?
What are some general characteristics of postmodernism?
What do postmodernists believe?
How is postmodernism related to relativism?
Where did Marxism come from?
Why is Marxism important?
How is Marxism different from other forms of socialism?
How does Marxism differ from Leninism?

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External Websites

Rebus Community - Introduction to Philosophy: Ethics - Utilitarianism
VIVA Open Publishing - Ethics and Society - Utilitarianism: Strengths and Weaknesses
Santa Clara University - Markkula Center for Applied Ethics - Calculating Consequences:The Utilitarian Approach to Ethics
World History Encyclopedia - Utilitarianism
Humanities LibreTexts - Utilitarianism
Corporate Finance Institute - Utilitarianism
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - The History of Utilitarianism
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Utilitarianism, Act and Rule
National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Utilitarianism and the pandemic
Open Okstate - Utilitarianism
ABC listen - The Philospher's Zone - Utilitarianism
PhilArchive - Utilitarianism (PDF)
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism

philosophy

Written by

Henry R. West

Professor of Philosophy, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota. Coeditor of Moral Philosophy.

Henry R. WestAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 4, 2026 •History

Utilitarianism, in normative ethics, a tradition stemming from the late 18th- and 19th-century English philosophers and economists Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill according to which an action (or type of action) is right if it tends to promote happiness or pleasure and wrong if it tends to produce unhappiness or pain—not just for the performer of the action but also for everyone else affected by it. Utilitarianism is a species of consequentialism, the general...

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