What is Utilitarianism? (Philosophical Definitions)

An explication of Utilitarianism, the most well known of the versions of Consequentialism, including where it stands on the ten distinctions outlined in the previous video on the Map of Consequentialism. Distinctions include, act vs rule, actual vs expected, hedonistic vs pluralistic, and more!

Sponsors: João Costa Neto, Dakota Jones, Joe Felix, Prince Otchere, Mike Samuel, Daniel Helland, Dennis Sexton, Yu Saburi, Mauricino Andrade, Will Roberts and √2. Thanks for your support!

Information for this video gathered from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy and more!

[ze_chooch]

Thanks for the video! Coincidentally, this week I'm studying Utilitarianism in class.

[sethapex]

The maximizing aspect of Utilitarianism makes it impossible to uphold. If we only care about the best consequences and the best consequences are actually impossible to achieve, then no man is capable of doing anything we could consider good. Considering we can always imagine a better state to the world than what currently exists, regardless of whether these imagined states are possible or not (see communism), it is fair to say that those consequences we would consider the absolute best are totally impossible. Since we typically want our system of ethics to allow for the possibility of goodness, utilitarianism is untennable.

[edthoreum]

no more aesthetics?
how about philo of love, your version?

[Owwwwie]

Such immature derision towards utilitarianism in the comments, makes you wonder if it's actually striking a chord/piquing cognitive dissonance. If it were me I'd question the reasoning behind my impassioned response, perhaps it's indicative of there being something to it.

[tonykanteven]

Shit, basically. Mill advocated the worst of the major ethical theories, and he never so much as justified utilitarianism or laid moral groundwork for why we should implement utilitarian practices in our lives.

[wwexpertchannel]

Utilitarianism sucks but it’s a great video though.