Utilitarianism is one of several ethical theories addressing the question of how to assess the “goodness” of any state of affairs. In the history of ideas, the most distinguished proponents and ...

Surrogacy is the practice of a woman who gestates a fetus for another person or couple. Through a contracted agreement, the surrogate gives up the child to this person or couple, who then adopt the ...

Ethical Decision Making resources provide an introduction to basic ideas in applied ethics, such as utilitarianism, rights, justice, virtue, and the common good. We also look at foundational questions ...

Paine, L. S. "Utilitarianism and the Goodness of Persons." In Foundations of Ethics. Vol. 4, edited by Leroy Rouner. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983.

“You’ve achieved success in your field when you don’t know whether what you’re doing is work or play.” Actor Warren Beatty would hardly have envisaged his words being lived out by a world-famous ...

The consequences of our actions are important. They matter. But if the utilitarian is right, then consequences are all that matters. Is this correct? The main principle of utilitarian moral theory, ...

The contemporary animal rights movement owes a great intellectual debt to Peter Singer's pathbreaking book Animal Liberation. In that book, Singer made a break with the dominant but limited Kantian ...