 Choosing welfare as the relevant value is only the first step towards answering the distributive questions. Welfare-theorists must also specify the welfare function. The welfare functions proposed vary according to what will count as welfare and the weighting system for that welfare. Economists defending some form of welfarism normally state the explicit functional form, while philosophers often omit this formality, concentrating on developing their theories in answer to two questions: 1) the question of what has intrinsic value (‘what counts as welfare’), and 2) the question of what actions or policies would maximize the intrinsic value. Moreover, philosophers have tended to focus on an extremely small subset of the available welfare functions. Although there are a number of advocates of alternative welfare functions (such as ‘equality of well-being’), most philosophical activity has concentrated on a variant known as utilitarianism. This theory can be used to illustrate most of the main characteristics of welfare-based principles.