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Utilitarianism, developed by Epicurus, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, and Peter Singer among others, holds that a guiding principle of ethics involves choosing whatever brings the most happiness and produces the least pain to the majority. According to Bentham (1780):

Nature has placed mankind [humankind] under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think …. The principle of utility recognizes this subjection, and assumes it for the foundation of that system, the object of which is to rear the fabric of felicity by the hands of reason and of law …. By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever … according to the tendency it appears to have to augment or diminish … happiness …. (p. 232–245).

Similarly, Mill (1863) wrote:

The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure (p. 9).

This may seem like a fairly simple, almost easy, approach to ethics. However, de Lazari-Radek and Singer (2017) emphasize that figuring out what promotes the most happiness in every situation may present more of a challenge than following a set of rules.

The core precept of utilitarianism is that we should make the world the best place we can. That means that, as far as it is within our power, we should bring about a world in which every individual has the highest possible level of well-being. Although this may seem like mere common sense, it is often in opposition to traditional moralities. Most communities prescribe rules to be followed irrespective of whether the outcome will make the world better or worse. It is much easier to follow rules than to try to assess, each time one acts, which of the available options will have the best consequences (p. 711–717).