An action is morally right if its immediate and future direct and indirect benefits are greatest for each individual, and if these benefits outweigh the costs of the considered for other alternatives. Happiness which forms the utilitarian standard of what is right in conduct, is not the agent's own happiness, but that of all concerned. When considering ones own happiness and that of others, utilitarianism requires one to be as strictly impartial as a disinterested and benevolent spectator. C. Problems with Utilitarianism 1. Utilitarianism does not judge the rightness or wrongness of actions in and of themselves but rather in their consequences.
Utilitarianism makes the past irrelevant.
Utilitarianism as a principle does not consider the individual. It is collective, the aggregate, for whom the greatest good is estimated. The principles of justice and rights are ignored in utilitarianism. The principle of justice is concerned with the distribution of good, not the amount of total good in a decision. The principle of rights is concerned with individual entitlements, regardless of collective calculated benefits.