Peter Singer, perhaps the most influential contemporary defender of utilitarianism, derives

utilitarianism from the basic idea that each person’s interests ought to be given equal
consideration.

Utilitarianism suggests that we ought to consider the totality of consequences of a policy or

action.

The classical formulation of utilitarian moral theory is found in the writings of Jeremy Bentham
(1748–1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806–1873). Jeremy Bentham was an English-born student
of law and
the leader of a radical movement for social and legal reform based on utilitarian principles. His
primary published work was Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789). The
title itself indicates his aim,—namely, to take the same principles that provide the basis for
morals as a guide for the formation and revision of law. Bentham believed
that the same principles guided both social and personal morality.

The original utilitarians were democratic, progressive, empiricist, and optimistic. They were
democratic in the sense that they believed that social policy ought to work for the good of all
persons, not just the upper class. They believed that when interests of various persons
conflicted, the best choice was that which promoted the interests of the greater number. The
utilitarians were progressive in
that they questioned the status quo. They believed that if, for example, the contemporary
punishment system was not working well, then it ought to be changed. Social programs should
be judged by their usefulness in promoting the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
Observation would determine whether a project or practice succeeded in this goal.

Thus, utilitarianism is part of the empiricist tradition in philosophy, which holds that we know
what is good only by observation or by appeal to experience. Bentham and Mill were also
optimists. They believed that human wisdom and science would improve the
lot of humanity. Mill wrote in Utilitarianism, “All
the grand sources of human suffering are in a great degree, many of them almost entirely,
conquerable by human care and effort.

The basic moral principle of utilitarianism is called the principle of utility or the greatest
happiness principle. As John Stuart Mill explained it (and as you will see in the reading that
follows) “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend
to produce the reverse of happiness.”

Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism.

It focuses on the consequences of actions.

Utilitarianism focuses on the consequences for all persons impacted by an action.

According to classical utilitarian moral theory,

When we evaluate human acts or practices, we consider neither the nature of the acts or
practices nor the motive for which people do what they do.

According to utilitarianism, we ought to decide which action or practice is best by considering

the likely or actual consequences of each alternative.

But utilitarians cannot argue that suicide is

intrinsically wrong—since they do not focus on the intrinsic rightness or wrongness of acts.
Instead, utilitarians have to consider the impact of suicide on the happiness of all those it
affects.

classical utilitarianism is a pleasure or happiness theory,meaning that it tends to reduce all other
goods to some form of pleasure or happiness

the classical theory that has come to be known as hedonism (from hedon, the Greek word for
pleasure) or Epicureanism (named after Epicurus, 341–270 BCE). Epicurus held that the good
life was the pleasant life. For him, this meant avoiding distress and desires for things beyond
one’s basic needs. Bodily pleasure and mental delight and peace were the goods to be sought
in life.

Some philosophers have called

utilitarianism universalistic because it is the happiness or pleasure of all who are affected by an
action or practice that is to be considered.

Bentham and his followers identified five elements that are used to calculate the greatest
amount of happiness: the net amount of pleasure or happiness, its intensity, its duration, its
fruitfulness, and the likelihood of any act to produce it.