ETHICS

Ethics

Ethics

Utilitarianism, in its simplest definition, is the notion that the moral worth of an action can be determined by assessing its utility in providing happiness or pleasure to the greatest number of people. It is related to consequentialism, the belief that the consequences of a particular action provide the criteria for making valid moral judgments about that action. Notions of utilitarianism go back to the Greek philosopher Epicurus, though it is in the works of 18th-century philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham that utilitarianism found its niche as a specific school of thought (Mulgan, 2007). Nineteenth-century philosopher John Stuart Mill is ...