Utilitarianism and Economic Theory

Utilitarianism is a family of moral and political philosophies according to which general utility or social welfare is ultimately the sole ethical value or good to be maximized. Normative economics endorsed a hedonistic version of utilitarianism from the latter part of the 18th century well into the 20th century. Despite the ordinalist revolution, some version of utilitarianism continues implicitly to serve as the ethical basis for economic policy judgements. While there are signs that this may be changing, economic theory has not yet moved decisively beyond utilitarianism, nor is it clear that it should.