Utilitarianism’s Progressive Edge Was That Everyone’s Happiness Counted Equally

Utilitarianism assesses actions and institutions by their effects on human happiness, and in one formulation tells us to maximize that happiness. That can sound like a cold calculus, but its historical progressivism came from two commitments: universal scope, the insistence that everyone’s happiness matters, and impartiality, the insistence that it matters equally.

When utilitarian principles were applied to social institutions, they tended to challenge traditional class and privilege and to support egalitarian reforms.