The moral doctrine that the right act is the one that produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number, counting every person's good alike.
Utilitarianism was given its classical form by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. It judges acts, and in its rule form the rules acts follow, by their consequences for happiness and suffering, and it insists that the good of each counts for one and none for more than one. From that spare principle its holders have argued for reforms from animal welfare to global poverty relief, and its critics have pressed the cases where the sum seems to license injustice.
Sources
Primary
- John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (1863).
Secondary
- Henry Sidgwick, The Methods of Ethics (1874).
How this compares to Christianity
How does this branch relate to the historic Christian faith?
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- Did it arise from the Christian tradition?
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- Is it recognized as Christian by the historic bodies?
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- This site's assessment
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- Reviewer
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The comparative record for this entity, its points of convergence and divergence across the ten loci, has not yet been populated. It stands in the assessment queue on the criteria page.
What this assessment cannot settle
This assessment determines what this entity teaches and how that teaching relates to the historic Christian creeds. It does not determine whether any person is saved, whether God accepts their worship, whether they are sincere, or whether the criteria applied here are correct.
This assessment is made from the standpoint described in our editorial statement and our criteria page. It reports classifications; it does not rank sincerity, spiritual standing, or the eternal state of any person.