Utilitarianism
Compare Bentham, Mill, preference, act and rule forms of consequentialist moral reasoning.
How to study A-level Philosophy
Learn each position as an argument, connect it to its strongest objection and reply, then decide what conclusion the dialectic supports.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Utilitarianism judges actions by their consequences for welfare and requires impartial consideration of those affected.
Exam cue: Specify the account of utility and whether an act or a rule is being assessed.
Concept 2
Bentham's quantitative hedonism and felicific calculus contrast with Mill's distinction between higher and lower pleasures.
Exam cue: Trace how the alleged consequence follows rather than appealing to a vague greater good.
Concept 3
Act, rule and preference utilitarianism respond differently to calculation, justice, integrity and demandingness.
Exam cue: Test a reply against rights, partiality, intention and cases where rules conflict with utility.
Targeted study blocks
Specified core
Secure the claim and its place in the debate
Cover Bentham, Mill, preference accounts and act-rule distinctions alongside the experience machine, rights, calculation, partiality, integrity and intention objections.
Philosophical work
Reconstruct, challenge and judge the argument
Keep the version of utilitarianism fixed through each objection and judge whether the best reply preserves or abandons its consequentialist core.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Equating utilitarianism with selfish pursuit of personal pleasure.
Guardrail: Do not replace philosophical reasoning with quotation, biography, intuition or a philosopher's name.
Using rule utilitarianism without explaining how rules are selected or revised.
Guardrail: Do not replace philosophical reasoning with quotation, biography, intuition or a philosopher's name.
Assuming Mill's qualitative distinction is obviously compatible with pure hedonism.
Guardrail: Do not replace philosophical reasoning with quotation, biography, intuition or a philosopher's name.
Memory anchors
Utility
Utility is the welfare or preference satisfaction that the theory seeks to maximise.
Felicific calculus
Bentham's calculus compares dimensions such as intensity, duration and extent of pleasure and pain.
Higher pleasures
Mill argues that pleasures differ in quality as well as quantity.
Act utilitarianism
Act utilitarianism assesses each action by its expected utility.
Rule utilitarianism
Rule utilitarianism assesses rules by the utility of their general acceptance or practice.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
What makes a theory utilitarian?
What is Bentham's hedonistic utility?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
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