Prioritarianism

Abstract

The rationale behind prioritarianism is the idea that suffering has a special moral importance. This means that a person who momentarily suffers has a special moral claim for improvement of her hedonic situation. It is the other way around with happiness. Prioritarianism is seen as a possible amendment to utilitarianism. Since suffering takes place at a definite time, momentary suffering, not suffering within an entire life, is what matters, according to prioritarianism. While the maximin/leximin theory gives absolute priority to those who are worst off prioritarinism presents a more nuanced view. Some special weight is given to an amount of happiness/unhappiness depending on where it falls, on a happy or on a miserable moment. There are many ideas, however, about how to specify the exact weight which should be given to an instant of happiness/unhappiness depending on where it appears on the hedonistic scale. This means that prioritarianism presents us with a family of theories rather than with one theory in particular. They all agree on the claim, however, that what should be maximized is a weighted sum of happiness rather than the sum total of happiness.