ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the paradigm of utilitarianism to be hedonistic act utilitarianism, a theory that has come down to us through Jeremy Bentham and Henry Sidgwick. The hedonistic act utilitarian principle is a criterion of right action. Utilitarianism needs to give us more than that: it needs to give us a method of ethical decision. Hedonistic act utilitarianism says that the right action is the one that maximizes total happiness. The chapter seeks to the ‘co-operative utilitarianism’ put forward by Donald Regan. Regan’s theory, expounded in his important book, Utilitarianism and Co-operation, is roughly that in a situation requiring cooperation, each agent should co-operate with other co-operators so as to maximize utility. Utilitarian thinking has practical importance in so far as it differs from common sense and traditional moral thinking. An important respect in which this is so is that utilitarian may endeavor to modify these legal and customary and of rights.
