Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that evaluate actions by their consequences for overall happiness or welfare. It originates with Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century who proposed the principle of utility: actions are right if they promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Happiness is often identified with pleasure and the avoidance of pain, and each person's interests count equally, reflecting impartiality.

John Stuart Mill refined Bentham's framework, emphasizing qualitative differences among pleasures and adding rules to guide common cases. Classical utilitarianism divided into act utilitarianism (evaluate individual actions by expected consequences) and rule utilitarianism (evaluate rules that, if followed, generally maximize happiness). The phrase greatest happiness principle remains a centerpiece.

Variants include preference utilitarianism, which seeks to maximize satisfaction of preferences rather than pleasure; negative utilitarianism, prioritizing reducing suffering; and other refinements addressing justice and rights, including capacity to measure outcomes and moral considerability.

Criticisms include the difficulty of quantifying happiness, potential conflicts with justice or individual rights, demandingness, and the problem of predicting consequences. Critics also question whether happiness is sole intrinsic good. Proponents argue utilitarianism offers a transparent, outcome-focused method for public policy and moral reasoning.

Influence and uses: widely discussed in moral philosophy, economics, public policy; used in cost-benefit analysis, welfare economics; debated in applied ethics such as animal welfare, medical ethics, climate policy.