 Utilitarianism is the view that actions and institutions should be judged on how far they produce welfare (or “utility”) for people (or for all beings capable of experiencing welfare). In its classical form, utilitarianism demands that social institutions be arranged so as to maximize the sum total of happiness, understood as pleasure net of pain, while in its more contemporary version it calls for these institutions to maximize the sum total of desire-satisfaction. In calculating this total, utilitarianism insists on a principle of equality: each person’s utility counts equally with that of every other person (Mill 1861).