ABSTRACT
As has already been pointed out in earlier chapters, according to utilitarianism the right action is that whose consequences maximise the well-being or happiness of affected agents. In the last two chapters we have looked at the welfarist and consequentialist components of the doctrine. In this chapter we are concerned with the aggregative maximising component – the claim that we should choose the action that produces the greatest total amount of well-being. Should maximising well-being be all that matters? What implications would this maximising approach have for the distribution of welfare and considerations of fairness and justice?
