Most Famous Utilitarianism Philosophers
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory holding that the right action is the one that maximises overall well-being or happiness. It was developed in classical form by Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century and refined by John Stuart Mill in the mid-19th century, and continues to be a major position in contemporary normative ethics. Modern variants include act and rule utilitarianism, preference utilitarianism, and welfarist forms of consequentialism more broadly. The view has been highly influential in economics, public policy, animal ethics, and global justice debates. It is often contrasted with deontological ethics, in which the rightness of actions is determined by duty or principle rather than consequences.
Philosophers in this tradition
-
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was a 19th-century British philosopher and political economist, the most influential English-language thinker of the Victorian era. He refined and defended the ...
-
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham was an 18th and 19th-century English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer, the founder of modern utilitarian ethics. His 1789 work An Introduction to the Prin...
-
Henry Sidgwick
Henry Sidgwick was a 19th-century English philosopher and one of the most rigorous and systematic moral philosophers of the Victorian era. His 1874 work The Methods of Ethics is...