Jeremy Bentham (co founder)

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes the overall “happiness”.

It is thus a form of Consequential-ism (meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined only by its resulting outcome) and that one can only weigh the morality of an action after knowing all its consequences.

Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are the two main influential contributors.

Utilitarianism was described by Bentham as “the greatest happiness principle”. Bentham elaborated Adam Smith’s idea ‘laissez-faire’ (leave alone) which meant the opposition to governmental interference in the economy of the nation.

It supposed that whatever was correct for the majority, in regard to the economic profit, to be correct for everyone.Utilitarianism can be characterized as a quantitative and reductionist approach to ethics. It is a type of Naturalism.

Utilitarianism has been accused of looking only at the results of actions, and disregarding the desires or intentions that motivate them.

Intentions seem somehow important: it seems undesirable to call an action intended to cause harm but that inadvertently causes good “overall good”.

While the results of a hatefully motivated action may indeed be “good”, this does not suggest that the motivation of “hate” should advocated in society.

Put simply, when using utilitarianism to decide which practices or even values to promote in a society, one might consider whether “hate” normally leads to “good” or “bad” outcomes.

This may allow utilitarianism to become a much more complex and rich moral theory, and may align far more closely with our moral intuitions.

In this sense, intentions are important to utilitarian, in as much as they tend to lead to certain actions, which themselves lead to certain outcomes.

Henry Sidgwick is a classic philosopher to take this view in his main work The Method of Ethics (1874).