ABSTRACT
The author argues that it is highly misleading to summarize utilitarianism by means of traditional formulae such as 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number'. It is not the doctrine that one should simply do whatever will maximize happiness, even if it were clear what that meant. It is not, essentially, concerned with what the individual should do in specific real life situations, although of course it speaks indirectly to that issue. Being an ethical theory it is to be construed as an explanation of what in principle makes actions morally right. It therefore, like any other ethical theory, has to be interpreted in terms of a conceivable ideal. Working in this way, one see the need to adopt rule-utilitarianism and to reject the idea of distinguishing between qualities of happiness, on utilitarian grounds. He conclude by listing some of the things that utilitarians are likely to regard as being morally good.
