Ethics and Values / Unit 4 Ethics 152 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Principle of Utility
Captions available
The idea
The principle of utility: an action is right in proportion as it tends to promote happiness for everyone affected, wrong as it tends to produce the reverse.
In practice
A council choosing between a clinic and a stadium runs the principle: count every resident's gain and loss, and build whichever sums higher.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
- 153Hedonism About Happiness
- 155Bentham's Calculus
- 156Everybody Counts for One
- 163Act Utilitarianism
- 164Rule Utilitarianism
- 165The Ignorance Objection
- 171The Justice Objection
- 172The Rights Objection
- 173The Backward-Looking-Reasons Objection
- 174The Too-Demanding Objection
- 175The Partiality Objection
- 185Running a Utility Audit
- 191The Transplant Surgeon
- 214The Utilitarian Theory of Punishment
- 346The Argument from Mercy
- 406The Last Ventilator
- 411The Toolkit
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