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Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is determined solely by its contribution to overall utility that is, its contribution to happiness or pleasure as summed among all persons. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome put simply, the ends justify the means. Utility, the good to be maximised, has been defined by various thinkers as happiness or pleasure (versus sadness or pain), although preference utilitarians like Peter Singer define it as the satisfaction of preferences. It may be described as a life stance, with happiness or pleasure being of ultimate importance.

Originally described by the phrase "the greatest good for the greatest number", its advocates eventually dropped "the greatest number".^[1] Utilitarianism can thus be characterised as a quantitative and reductionist approach to ethics. It can be contrasted with deontological ethics (which do not regard the consequences of an act as the sole determinant of its moral worth) and virtue ethics (which focuses on character), as well as with other varieties of consequentialism. Adherents of these opposing views have extensively criticised the utilitarian view, but utilitarians have been similarly critical of other schools of thought.

In general, the term utilitarian refers to a somewhat narrow economic or pragmatic viewpoint. Philosophical utilitarianism, however, is much broader most approaches, for example, consider non-humans in addition to people.

The origins of utilitarianism are often traced as far back as the Greek philosopher Epicurus, but, as a specific school of thought, it is generally credited to Jeremy Bentham.^[2] Bentham found pain and pleasure to be the only intrinsic values in the world "nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure." From this, he derived the rule of utility the good is whatever brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people. Later, after realising that the formulation recognised two different and potentially conflicting principles, he dropped the second part and talked simply about "the greatest happiness principle".

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