“This view says that we should try to maximize the “utility,” or satisfaction, of as many different interests as possible.4 Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), together with James Mill (1773-1836) and his son, John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), make up the British school of utilitarianism; Bentham noted that utilitarianism aims to simply maximize the greatest happiness possible. In this case, the utilitarian is likely to think: “Surely three billion people living while Dyson dies would make more people happy... than Dyson being allowed to live while three billion people become ash in a nuclear wind.” But in fact, this is a shortsighted view of the scenario. Utilitarians need to take the long-term, as well as the short-term, consequences into consideration. This analysis extends only to Judgment Day and does not project beyond it. More important, the utilitarian formula of maximizing interests is so simple that its implications are often overlooked—the statement says nothing, for instance, about counting only human interests.MoreLessRead More Read Less
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