Utility monster

The utility monster is a thought experiment in the study of ethics. It was created by philosopher Robert Nozick in 1974 as a criticism of utilitarianism.

In the thought experiment, a hypothetical being is proposed who receives as least as much utility from each additional unit of a resource he consumes as the first unit he consumes.

Since ordinary people receive less utility with each additional unit consumed, if the utility monster existed, it would justify the mistreatment and perhaps annihilation of everyone else, according to the doctrine of utilitarianism.

According to the philosopher Robert Nozick:

"Utilitarian theory is embarrassed by the possibility of utility monsters who get enormously greater sums of utility from any sacrifice of others than these others lose . . . the theory seems to require that we all be sacrificed in the monster’s maw, in order to increase total utility."

This thought experiment attempts to show that utilitarianism is not actually egalitarian, even though it appears to be at first glance.

It is the opposite of the mere addition paradox, which argues that utilitarianism may lead to a very heavily populated dystopic world.

See also

• Average and total utilitarianism