{"id":83921,"date":"2022-11-18T08:37:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T12:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=83921"},"modified":"2022-11-23T14:42:56","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T18:42:56","slug":"utilitarianism-philosophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Utilitarianism Moral Philosophy?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is utilitarianism in philosophy? How do utilitarians define morality? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Utilitarianism is a moral philosophy arguing that the morality of an action or choice depends on how much happiness or pain it creates. <\/strong>\u201cHappiness\u201d to utilitarians (which they call \u201cutility\u201d) means pleasure and the fulfillment of desires, while a lack of happiness means pain or deprivation of desires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading to learn about the key tenets of utilitarianism philosophy and how they apply to real-life political issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Maximizing Welfare: Utilitarianism<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In moral philosophy, utilitarianism is an ideology that prescribes actions that maximize welfare or happiness. Utilitarians argue that happiness and pain are the only ways we can measure morality\u2014morally good things make people happy, while morally bad things cause people pain. Therefore, utilitarianism states that the most moral choice<\/a> in any given situation is always the choice that creates the most happiness for the most people possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: The idea of measuring morality through pleasure and pain is very old, and by no means unique to utilitarianism. What makes utilitarianism unique, however, is its focus on society as a whole<\/em> rather than on the individual. Other moral philosophies based on pleasure and pain tend to stay on the individual level\u2014for example, ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BC) believed that individuals should try and maximize their personal pleasure and minimize their personal pain<\/a>. This perspective, often known as egoism, doesn\u2019t necessarily align with a utilitarian view of social organization. That\u2019s because, unlike utilitarians, egoists might not agree to sacrifice their personal<\/em> happiness in exchange for greater collective<\/em> happiness.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To show how this applies to political questions, Sandel explores two important views that result from utilitarian thinking<\/a>: that there are no guaranteed individual rights, and that we can measure happiness.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

View #1: No Guaranteed Individual Rights<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

According to utilitarians, individuals <\/em><\/strong>don\u2019t morally deserve guaranteed basic rights\u2014things like a right to safety, freedom, or property<\/strong>. Instead, utilitarians only believe in giving these rights if doing so maximizes collective <\/em>happiness. On the other hand, if harming an individual or depriving them of freedom maximizes collective happiness, then it\u2019s morally justified. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, English philosopher and founder of utilitarianism Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) argued that governments should round up homeless people and imprison them in labor camps. He claimed that this was moral because it would create more utility<\/em> (a cheap labor force to lower the cost of goods, fewer homeless people on the streets, improving standards of living for the homeless) than it would pain<\/em> (depriving homeless people of freedom).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

View #2: People Can Measure Happiness<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To understand how much happiness or pain an action creates (a crucial part of determining what\u2019s most ethical), a utilitarian believes they can measure happiness on a consistent scale. Sandel explains two main perspectives on how to do this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) Quantitative method:<\/strong> Some utilitarians (including Bentham) value all pleasures equally in their measurements of happiness. This non-judgmental approach makes it easier to measure pleasure and pain\u2014they just consider how many<\/em> pleasures a decision will create rather than which pleasures are lesser or greater. For example, a quantitative method would value pleasure from viewing the Mona Lisa<\/em> as equal to pleasure from viewing The Real Housewives of New Jersey<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) Qualitative method:<\/strong> Other utilitarians like John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) argue for a hierarchy of pleasures<\/strong> instead of valuing them all equally<\/strong>. <\/strong>They suggest that general consensus can create this hierarchy\u2014if people generally agree that one pleasure is better than another (focusing on what they actually<\/em> like, not on what they think they should<\/em> like), then society will value that pleasure more highly. For example, if people generally accept that they enjoy The Real Housewives of New Jersey <\/em>more than the Mona Lisa<\/em> or that it\u2019s \u201cbetter art,\u201d then a qualitative scale would value Real Housewives<\/em> above the Mona Lisa<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is utilitarianism in philosophy? How do utilitarians define morality? Utilitarianism is a moral philosophy arguing that the morality of an action or choice depends on how much happiness or pain it creates. \u201cHappiness\u201d to utilitarians (which they call \u201cutility\u201d) means pleasure and the fulfillment of desires, while a lack of happiness means pain or deprivation of desires. Keep reading to learn about the key tenets of utilitarianism philosophy and how they apply to real-life political issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":78446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,24],"tags":[804],"class_list":["post-83921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philosophy","category-society","tag-justice","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Is Utilitarianism Moral Philosophy? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is utilitarianism in moral philosophy? Learn about the key tenets of utilitarianism and how they apply to real-life political issues.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Is Utilitarianism Moral Philosophy?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is utilitarianism in moral philosophy? Learn about the key tenets of utilitarianism and how they apply to real-life political issues.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-18T12:37:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-23T18:42:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/emotions-faces-smile-frown.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"What Is Utilitarianism Moral Philosophy?\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-18T12:37:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-23T18:42:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/\"},\"wordCount\":645,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/emotions-faces-smile-frown.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Justice\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Philosophy\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/\",\"name\":\"What Is Utilitarianism Moral Philosophy? - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/emotions-faces-smile-frown.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-18T12:37:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-23T18:42:56+00:00\",\"description\":\"What is utilitarianism in moral philosophy? Learn about the key tenets of utilitarianism and how they apply to real-life political issues.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/emotions-faces-smile-frown.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/emotions-faces-smile-frown.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What Is Utilitarianism Moral Philosophy?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\",\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"caption\":\"Darya Sinusoid\"},\"description\":\"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Is Utilitarianism Moral Philosophy? - Shortform Books","description":"What is utilitarianism in moral philosophy? Learn about the key tenets of utilitarianism and how they apply to real-life political issues.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Is Utilitarianism Moral Philosophy?","og_description":"What is utilitarianism in moral philosophy? Learn about the key tenets of utilitarianism and how they apply to real-life political issues.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2022-11-18T12:37:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-11-23T18:42:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/emotions-faces-smile-frown.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Darya Sinusoid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Darya Sinusoid","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/"},"author":{"name":"Darya Sinusoid","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46"},"headline":"What Is Utilitarianism Moral Philosophy?","datePublished":"2022-11-18T12:37:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-23T18:42:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/"},"wordCount":645,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/emotions-faces-smile-frown.jpg","keywords":["Justice"],"articleSection":["Philosophy","Society"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/","name":"What Is Utilitarianism Moral Philosophy? - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/emotions-faces-smile-frown.jpg","datePublished":"2022-11-18T12:37:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-23T18:42:56+00:00","description":"What is utilitarianism in moral philosophy? Learn about the key tenets of utilitarianism and how they apply to real-life political issues.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/emotions-faces-smile-frown.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/emotions-faces-smile-frown.jpg","width":1200,"height":630},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/utilitarianism-philosophy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What Is Utilitarianism Moral Philosophy?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46","name":"Darya Sinusoid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","caption":"Darya Sinusoid"},"description":"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/emotions-faces-smile-frown.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83921"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84791,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83921\/revisions\/84791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}