Abstract
Sidgwick [ 38 ] considered that if the average happiness of human beings is a positive quantity, then, assuming the average level of happiness will not decrease, utilitarianism directs us to make the number enjoying it as large as possible. But if this increase is at the expense of a decrease in average happiness, and if utilitarianism prescribes happiness as a whole to be the ultimate end of action rather than any individual’s happiness, then the amount of happiness gained by the extra numbers should be weighed against that lost by the remainder and vice-versa for a decrease in numbers.
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© 1977 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg
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Lane, J.S. (1977). CLASSICAL UTILITARIANISM: first best solutions. In: On Optimal Population Paths. Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, vol 142. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-95291-3_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-95291-3_3
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