Utilitarianism

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Resources

Utilitarianism

names a family of ethical views that take as the yardstick of moral appraisal the propensity of actions to increase or diminish human well-being (or, more broadly, that of all sentient creatures). In its basic classical form it holds that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness”, where “happiness” is understood as “pleasure, and the absence of pain” (J.S. Mill). Alternatively, “utility” has been conceived as “correlative to Desire or Want” (Alfred Marshall) and right actions defined as those that most fully satisfy people’s desires or preferences. Common to all forms of utilitarianism is a rejection of the view that some things simply ought, or ought not, to be done…

2323 words

Citation: Scarre, G. F.. "Utilitarianism". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 October 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1169, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1169 Utilitarianism 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.