Utilitarianism and Animal Husbandry - Killing Happy Animals: Explorations in Utilitarian Ethics - page 20

determines how well her life goes as a whole (intrapersonal aggrega-
tion). Aggregation can also take place across the dimension of states
if we want to know how the values of each of an act's various possible
results (one for each state of nature) together determine the value of the
overall outcome that the act leads to. 5
The most straightforward way of aggregating is summing up. Thus, for
instance, the welfare of a whole life consists of the sum of all instances
of positive and negative welfare. The value of an outcome consists of the
sum of all positive and negative welfare consequences that the outcome
contains. This method of aggregation is called the total view , because all
relevant instances of welfare are simply brought together. An alterna-
tive method of aggregation is the average view . This method consists in
summing up and then taking the average. So, the average welfare level of
a person's life would indicate the value of the life for the person. The value
of an outcome would be calculated by calculating the total amount of
welfare and dividing it through the number of beings that are involved.
The right thing to do, according to utilitarianism, is to maximize the
good. Utilitarianism's 'theory of the right' entails that the right action is
the one that maximizes the good:
Any particular (concrete) action is right if, and only if, in the situa-
tion, there was nothing the agent could have done instead such that,
had the agent done it, the world, on the whole, would have been
better....an action is wrong, if, and only if, it is not right. And an
action is obligatory if, and only if, had the agent acted in any way
differently, the world, on the whole, would have been worse. 6
Since utilitarianism is usually defined as a maximizing theory, it can
be doubted whether satisficing versions, which claim that value should
not always be maximized, should still be called utilitarian. 7 This is a
terminological issue. I will stick to the common definition of utilitari-
anism as a moral theory that requires the maximization of the good. 8
The requirement of maximization implies that outcomes of possible
actions, so-called 'options', need to be compared. The option with the
best outcome ought to be chosen.
The values of the consequences of actions are referred to in terms
of 'utility'. Utility, more specifically, is used to refer to the net value of
the outcome. Thus, if an action has both good and bad aspects, the net
utility refers to both kinds of aspects together. The guiding idea behind
utilitarianism is the following: '...we are obligated to bring about the
best state of affairs ... that we can in the particular situation in which we