Utilitarianism and Climate Change
How does utilitarianism direct us to respond to climate change? This essay explores the harms caused by carbon emissions, how the cost-effectiveness of reducing emissions compares to other global priorities, and what both individuals and governments ought to do in light of these facts.
Utilitarianism and Nonhuman Animals
This essay advances three claims about utilitarianism and nonhuman animals. Utilitarianism plausibly implies, first, that all vertebrates and many invertebrates morally matter, but that some of these animals might matter more than others; second, that we should attempt to both promote animal welfare and respect animal rights in practice; and third, that we should prioritize farmed and wild animals and work to support them.
Moral Psychology and Utilitarianism
As an abstract ideal, utilitarianism may sound like simple common sense. But utilitarianism has some implications that are counterintuitive. This essay explores how psychological biases can explain anti-utilitarian intuitions.
Virtues for Real-World Utilitarians
This article discusses how utilitarians should go about applying their philosophy in the real world. It argues that utilitarians should cultivate a set of utilitarian virtues, including moderate altruism, moral expansiveness, effectiveness-focus, truth-seeking, collaborativeness, and determination.
The Time-Relative Account of Interests
The utilitarian goal of promoting everyone's interests is complicated by the Parfitian view that one's self-interest across time is a matter of degree (based on psychological connectedness) rather than all-or-nothing identity. This essay introduces and explores the Time-Relative Account of Interests, which uniquely captures key intuitions about the relative misfortune of death at different stages of life.
Utilitarianism and Research Ethics
This essay questions common assumptions about the philosophical foundations of research ethics. It argues that (I) utilitarianism can account for many core research ethics norms, (II) Kantian ethics may conflict with many core research ethics norms, and (III) a more utilitarian outlook would improve contemporary research ethics in concrete ways.
Uncertainty and Utilitarianism
When we're less than fully certain of which moral view is correct, it may be wise to 'hedge our bets' by finding a compromise between the different views we find plausible. This essay especially explores the implications of moral uncertainty for utilitarian-friendly agents—those who have non-negligible confidence in utilitarianism or in some of its central claims.
Buddhism and Utilitarianism
This article analyses the extent to which elements of utilitarianism can be found within (i) the Early Buddhist tradition, and (ii) classical Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism. It then explores a Buddhist perspective on well-being, and concludes by comparing Engaged Buddhism to effective altruism.
Utilitarianism and Voting
This essay discusses the value of voting from a utilitarian perspective. It explores how to estimate the chance of casting a decisive vote, how to think about the stakes of an election, and whether we can reliably identify which candidate is better.
Expected Utility Maximization
Expected Utility Maximization directs us to weigh the value associated with each possible outcome by its probability, yielding an overall expected value. This essay explains Expected Utility Maximization as a decision theory and defends its most distinctive feature: that it can advise us to choose options that will predictably lose.
Welfare Economics and Interpersonal Utility Comparisons
Many students of economics and philosophy have been puzzled by whether utility is cardinally or only ordinally measurable, and whether interpersonal comparisons of utility are possible in principle and in practice. This essay attempts to answer these questions, using simple arguments.
Naturalistic Arguments for Ethical Hedonism
Many deny that objective and universal moral truth exists. Many more deny that it can be empirically discovered within natural reality. The arguments in this essay seek to empirically discover objective and universal moral truth in natural reality. This truth is that pleasure is goodness.
Analytic Hedonism and Observable Moral Facts
In this summary of her 2016 book The Feeling of Value, Sharon Hewitt Rawlette defends “analytic hedonism”. From our direct acquaintance with the intrinsic value of good and bad experiential states, we can build an entire ethical system that is fully grounded in observable fact.
Bentham and Criminal Law
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) sought to design a set of legal and political institutions that would conform to the ‘principle of utility’, i.e. produce the most happiness. This article presents a survey of his famous work, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, and discusses Bentham’s thinking about what utilitarian criminal law would look like.