Utilitarianism: benefit for all

In short: Utilitarianism judges actions by their consequences: good is what brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number. Representatives are Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.

In more detail: It is a consequentialist ethics: the result matters, not the intention.

In detail

• Principle: Maximise happiness, minimise suffering, count everyone affected equally.
• Act and rule utilitarianism: Examine individual actions or general rules.
• Applications: Health policy, animal welfare, impact of donations.
• Criticism: Minorities could be sacrificed; consequences are hard to predict and measure.
• Thought experiment: The trolley problem shows tensions between consequences and duties (trolley-problem-gedankenexperiment).
• Counter-position: Deontology (kategorischer-imperativ-kant).
• Today: Effective altruism is a modern offshoot (ethik-grundlagen-gut-und-richtig).