Utilitarianism is a union of hedonism and Christianity. The first teaches man
to love pleasure; the second, to love his neighbor. The union consists in
teaching man to love his neighbor’s pleasure. To be exact, the Utilitarians
teach that an action is moral if its result is to maximize pleasure among men
in general. This theory holds that man’s duty is to serve—according to a
purely quantitative standard of value. He is to serve not the well-being of
the nation or of the economic class, but “the greatest happiness of the
greatest number,” regardless of who comprise it in any given issue. As to
one’s own happiness, says [John Stuart] Mill, the individual must be
“disinterested” and “strictly impartial”; he must remember that he is only one
unit out of the dozens, or millions, of men affected by his actions. “All
honor to those who can abnegate for themselves the personal enjoyment of life,”
says Mill, “when by such renunciation they contribute worthily to increase the
amount of happiness in the world.”