Forms of hedonism were put forward by Aristippus and Epicurus Aristotle argued that eudaimonia is the highest human good and Augustine wrote that 'all men agree in desiring the last end, which is happiness.' Happiness was also explored in depth by Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica. The importance of happiness as an end for humans has long been recognized. See also: Hedonism Pre-modern formulations However, Mill seems to have been unaware that Bentham had used the term utilitarian in his 1781 letter to George Wilson and his 1802 letter to Étienne Dumont. Rather, he adopted it from a passing expression' in John Galt's 1821 novel Annals of the Parish. In 1861, Mill acknowledged in a footnote that, though Bentham believed 'himself to be the first person who brought the word 'utilitarian' into use, he did not invent it. The concept has been applied towards social welfare economics, questions of justice, the crisis of global poverty, the ethics of raising animals for food, and the importance of avoiding existential risks to humanity.īenthamism, the utilitarian philosophy founded by Jeremy Bentham, was substantially modified by his successor John Stuart Mill, who popularized the term utilitarianism. Though the seeds of the theory can be found in the hedonists Aristippus and Epicurus, who viewed happiness as the only good, and in the work of the medieval Indian philosopher Śāntideva, the tradition of modern utilitarianism began with Jeremy Bentham, and continued with such philosophers as John Stuart Mill, Henry Sidgwick, R. There is also disagreement as to whether total utility ( total utilitarianism), average utility ( average utilitarianism) or the utility of the people worst-off should be maximized. Proponents of utilitarianism have disagreed on a number of issues, such as whether actions should be chosen based on their likely results ( act utilitarianism), or whether agents should conform to rules that maximize utility ( rule utilitarianism). Unlike other forms of consequentialism, such as egoism and altruism, utilitarianism considers the interests of all sentient beings equally.

Utilitarianism is a version of consequentialism, which states that the consequences of any action are the only standard of right and wrong.

to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered. That property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness . For instance, Jeremy Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism, described utility as: Īlthough different varieties of utilitarianism admit different characterizations, the basic idea behind all of them is, in some sense, to maximize utility, which is often defined in terms of well-being or related concepts. In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals.

Mill pleasure principle