John Harris is an influential UK bioethicist whose hard core utilitarianism makes his ideas dangerous and potentially as tyrannical as those of Peter Singer–perhaps more. I first became aware of ...

Laboratory assistants have to do all sorts of terrible, embarrassing things, but surely this is among the silliest: Enter a bar in Grenoble, France. Identify people who look moderately drunk. Walk up ...

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, ...

In a philosophy seminar many years ago I called utilitarian ethics ‘the moral view from nowhere’. Like so many smart-ass undergrads I was riffing from a work that I knew my philosophy peers would have ...

Scientists found that people who endorse actions consistent with an ethic of utilitarianism -- the view that what is the morally right thing to do is whatever produces the best overall consequences -- ...

Conceptual frameworks drawn from theories that have shaped the study of ethics over centuries can help us recognize and describe ethical issues when we encounter them. In this way, a basic grasp of ...

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, ...