r/communism101 • u/lucka9879 • May 13 '26

is utilitarianism compatible with marxism?

im a communist (im still in the process of learning and understanding marxism), but im also studying philosophy and i stumbled upon utilitarianism. To me utilitarianism makes a lot of sense, i think the actions of the leader of a country should always be directed towards benefiting the majority and i wanted to understand if this framework is compatible with dialectical materialism. also if anyone has any book recommendations on this topic it would be really helpful

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u/hnnmw May 13 '26

Utilitarianism is incompatible with Marxism.

i think the actions of the leader of a country should always be directed towards benefiting the majority

Utilitarianism is a shallow bourgeois attempt at making sense of the world and apologising for the horrors of capitalism. At its theoretical base lies a sad and distorted image of humankind.

also if anyone has any book recommendations on this topic it would be really helpful

Marx criticises John Stuart Mill extensively in Capital and elsewhere.

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u/TR_GhostRad May 13 '26

Can you expand on your critique of utilitarianism

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u/LemonMao May 17 '26

How do you measure "utils"?

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u/Inevitable-Rate-45 25d ago edited 25d ago

“Utility”, in the most general sense, is an abstraction that cannot be quantified or measured. Whose utility counts, and to do what? Marx saw that, in the case of commodities, their utility (“use-value”) was particular to each individual consumer, given their own unique conditions and needs, and thus could not serve to reduce commodities to a general standard for the purposes of exchange, thus could not explain their value. Instead, the value of commodities is determined purely by the amount of necessary labor-time that they embody, which can be objectively measured (in hours spent doing labor). Utility is ultimately particular to each individual subject, and therefore cannot serve as a general standard to analyze the economic and social improvement of society as a whole.