Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is a moral and social philosophy holding that actions, rules, and institutions should be judged by their consequences, and that the right course is the one that produces the greatest happiness or well-being for the greatest number of people. It was systematized by Jeremy Bentham, who proposed a felicific calculus for measuring pleasure and pain and who designed the panopticon as a rational instrument of reform. John Stuart Mill refined the doctrine by distinguishing higher from lower pleasures and by defending individual liberty on utilitarian grounds, while Henry Sidgwick offered a rigorous philosophical statement in The Methods of Ethics. Peter Singer has applied preference utilitarianism to global poverty and animal welfare. The tradition shaped classical economics, welfare policy, and rational choice theory, including the work of George Homans and James Coleman on social exchange and rational action. Emile Durkheim criticized utilitarian accounts for neglecting the moral basis of contracts and solidarity, and Talcott Parsons argued that the problem of social order cannot be solved by self-interest alone. John Rawls charged that utilitarianism fails to respect the separateness of persons and the priority of rights. Utilitarianism remains central to debates about ethics, justice, public policy, and economic behavior.