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The utilitarian ethical theory has a long history. Many of the
elements can be found in the 18th-century work of David Hume.
A classical statement of the theory and its application to law
was published by Jeremy Bentham in 1789. The most famous defense
was written by John Stuart Mill in 1863. In the 20th century,
there have been many defenders of the theory, although there has
also been powerful criticism. Defenders include R. M. Hare and
Richard Brandt. Critics include John Rawls and Robert Nozick.
In general, utilitarianism teaches that each of our actions, or
each type of action, is good or bad in so far as it tends to increase
or decrease human well-being. In Bentham's words, "an action
. . . may be said to be conformable to the principle of utility,
. . . when the tendency it has to augment the happiness of the
community is greater than any it has to diminish it."
Since Bentham's time, the idea of well-being used by utilitarians
has changed. Utilitarians today would probably refer to human
welfare or to the satisfaction of human preferences or choices
rather than happiness.
Utilitarian theories are usually divided into two types called
act utilitarian and rule utilitarian. An act utilitarian
believes that in any given situation the best action to perform
is the action that will maximize human welfare. A rule utilitarian
believes that we should think in terms of types of acts rather
than individual actions. Moral rules should be phrased in terms
of types of acts and in a given situation we should follow the
rules that will maximize human welfare in the long run. A rule utilitarian can allow that in a specific situation, a specific act is the proper act to perform (because it is dictated by the rules that apply) and yet allow that some other act would maximize human welfare.
There have been a great many criticisms of utilitarianism. For
example, John Rawls has argued that utilitarianism "does
not take seriously the distinction between persons" because
it focuses on the sum of satisfactions. J. L. Mackie has
argued that the utilitarian idea of a measurable and comparable
entity called happiness is a myth. Robert Nozick has suggested
that utilitarian theory has trouble dealing with the possibility
of "utility monsters" who gain enormously from the sacrifices
of others. To develop your own understanding of the standard types
of ethical theory, read these philosophers and, of course, their
critics.