People who put the public good before their own self interest have been admired throughout history. But what is the public good? Sages and prophets who think they know better what is good for us than we know ourselves held sway on this subject for more than two thousand years. The world had to wait for the Enlightenment that burst upon the world in the eighteenth century for an account of the public good free from the prejudices of the privileged classes.Utilitarianism is our name for this new way of thinking about morality. Francis Hutcheson encapsulated its aims by inventing its catchphrase "The greatest happiness for the greatest number'' fifty years before Jeremy Bentham, to whom the slogan is usually attributed. But what is happiness? Why did Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill prefer to speak of utility? How did economists develop this notion? Does it really make sense to compare the utilities of different people? Bob may complain more than Alice in thedentist's chair, but is he really suffering more? Why should I put the sum of everybody's utility before my own utility?

Introduction.- Shaftesbury.- Hutcheson.- Helvétius.- Hume.- Beccaria.- Godwin.- Bentham.- Mill.- Jevons.- Sidgwick.- Edgeworth.- Hare.- Rawls.- Harsanyi.