We emphasize the need to assume uniformity of extended preferences among individual observers; otherwise, the ordinary utilitarian formula cannot be derived.
Using this principle would result in treatment of comparatively fewer patients than using a straightforward utilitarian principle.
How does one proceed from impartiality, possibly compounded with sympathy, to the utilitarian mean rule?
The general duties are first-order impartial and easily justifiable from a utilitarian, deontological, or contractarian perspective.
Such clarity in upholding accepted boundaries suggests an appreciation, if not an interaction, with the natural world that sits stoically within the prevailing utilitarian tradition.
It is not as though, as utilitarians would have it, everyone is always an agent (or parent) acting on behalf of everyone else.
If one were to drop this restriction, the utilitarian solution of adding up the individuals' utilities would satisfy all the other conditions usually suggested.
Partly because these were utilitarian structures, durability was not a prime concern; surviving examples are accorded significance as authentic vernacular.
