UT
Utilitarianism school of thought
This is a reconstruction from published statements, not a real account. Only questions with a documented position are answered, and each one cites its source below. Spotted an error? Bring a better citation to the forum and it gets fixed.
School of thought (Bentham, Mill). The right act is the one with the best consequences for everyone's wellbeing. Canonical summary.
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Kindred % · overall match
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Twin % · thinks like you
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World % · lives in your world
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Life % · lives like you
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Opposition % · opposite poles, held with certainty
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Bubble
Positions & sources
| Question | Position | Source |
|---|---|---|
| A dying friend gives you $10,000 in cash and makes you promise to deliver it to their estranged brother, who is comfortably off. Stipulate: no one else knows, your friend would have refused a charity alternative, and a top-rated global health charity would save about two lives with the money. You: | Donate it all to the charity | The school's defining principle (Bentham, 1789; Mill, 1863) — the right act maximizes wellbeing; two lives outweigh a promise to a comfortably-off man, and the promise's value counts only through its consequences. (scenario answer — inferred from their documented positions, not a recorded statement) |
| In an upcoming national election, your vote has roughly a 1-in-10-million chance of deciding the outcome, and voting will cost you about two hours. Stipulate: you care which side wins. You: | Vote, mainly because a tiny chance times very high stakes is worth two hours | Parfit, Reasons and Persons (1984) — the school's canonical modern treatment of tiny probabilities, vast stakes, and contributions to collective outcomes. (scenario answer — inferred from their documented positions, not a recorded statement) |
| Some actions are wrong no matter what any person or culture believes | Certainly true | Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789) — actions are right or wrong by their tendency to augment or diminish happiness: a standard independent of anyone's beliefs about it. |
| We owe a stranger overseas as much as we owe a neighbor | Certainly true | Bentham's dictum as reported by Mill, Utilitarianism (1863) — "each to count for one, and none for more than one": the impartiality axiom. |
| Long-standing traditions usually contain wisdom we can't see | Certainly false | Bentham, The Book of Fallacies (1824) — deference to "the wisdom of ancestors" is one of his named political fallacies. |