The Utilitarian Fallacy

Utilitarianism is ultimately bankrupt as an ethical philosophy, and really offers nothing to anyone seeking a viable ethics. As it stands, utilitarianism requires acts great and small of fantastic absurdity, which conflict with common notions of justice as well as our pre-reflective intuitions about what is moral to do. Furthermore, the utilitarian defense is feeble at best, and offers no modification of the theory which make it viable.

Herein, utilitarianism shall be considered as the claim that a person, when acting, should always aim to maximize utility. This claim is hereafter referred to as 'rule U.' 'Utility" may be variously defined, but it shall not be our concern to explore the effects of fiddling with the details of the concept, since it will be argued that no such specification could make a significant enough difference to save utilitarianism from its problems. Thus, utility will be spoken of in a general sense, and treated specifically as necessary in each of the problematic examples considered.