Utilitaristes

Utilitaristes refers to adherents of utilitarianism, a family of ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize overall utility. Utility is generally understood as happiness or pleasure, and the absence of pain or suffering. The core principle is that the morally right action is the one that produces the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are considered the most influential figures in the development of utilitarianism. Bentham famously proposed a "hedonistic calculus" to measure the quantity of pleasure and pain. Mill, while also a proponent of pleasure as the ultimate good, distinguished between higher and lower pleasures, arguing that intellectual and moral pleasures are superior to purely physical ones.

Utilitarianism can be broadly divided into act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. Act utilitarianism evaluates each individual action based on its consequences, while rule utilitarianism suggests following general rules that, if universally adopted, would lead to the greatest overall utility. Critics often raise concerns about the potential for utilitarianism to justify actions that seem intuitively wrong, such as sacrificing the rights of a minority for the sake of the majority. Despite these criticisms, utilitarianism remains a significant and widely debated ethical framework.