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Desire utilitarianism or Desire Fulfilment Theory is an ethical theory with meta-ethical, normative and applied ethics components. It uses a concepts from action theory, namely Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) Theory and value theory specifically where value is the relation between desires and states of affairs. It derives moral value as being a relation where desires themselves are the object of a desire. In the book A Better Place: Essays on Desire Utilitarianism, Alonzo Fyfe describes desire utilitarianism as "the idea that morality involves using praise and condemnation to promote desires that tend to fulfill other desires, and to inhibit desires that tend to thwart other desires."[1]
Desire Utilitarianism holds that value is a relation between a desire and a state of affairs and a moral value is a relation where desires themselves are the object of a desire. It rejects Moore's naturalistic fallacy as itself being a version of the masked man fallacy[2]. It claims to bridge Hume's is-ought gap by asserting that desires are brain states and that as long as one of the 'is' premises refers to a desire then one can derive an 'ought' as the conclusion [3] . It uses similar arguments against intrinsic prescriptivity or classical objective value to those of Error Theory and argues that relational value is a type of objective fact to resolve the fact-value distinction. This becomes a modified version of moral realism but where it is relational not intrinsic value that is objective. As such Desire Utilitarianism can be considered is a version of ethical naturalism. So it argues against moral non-cognitivism that moral reasoning is meaningful by using suitably grammatically modified substitutions of 'good' with 'desires that (tend to) fulfil other desires' and 'bad' with 'desires that (tend to) thwart other desires'. Further it argues against individualist subjectivism that it is all desires, not just those of the agent, that must be taken into consideration. With respect to moral relativism it says that societies can be evaluated according to the degree that they fulfil or thwart desires of <i>all</i> its constituents. Since it holds that a desire is an attitude that a proposition is made or kept true, it rejects any desire that is dependent upon a fiction and any moral theories based on such fictions such as Divine Command Theory - since doing God's will is a desire that can never be fulfilled. It argues against Ideal Observer Theory that that relies on metaphysics, whereas as Desire Utilitarianism avoids such unnecessary assumptions.[4]
According to desire utilitarianism, desires and beliefs are both propositional attitudes. As Fyfe defines them: "A belief is the attitude that a certain proposition (e.g. "God exists') is true. A desire is an attitude that a certain proposition (e.g. "I am having sex with Sam") is to be made or kept true." [5]. Beliefs can be either true or false. Desires can be thwarted or fulfilled. People act according to the more and stronger of their desires. Moral values are based on relations between desires that have desires as their object such that "A good desire is a desire that tends to fulfill other desires. A bad desire is a desire that tends to thwart other desires."[5] Now Desire utilitarianism is the idea that such good desires should be promoted, and such bad desires should be discouraged. Specifically it focuses on changing <i>malleable</i> desires, since it is only desires not beliefs (according to BDI Theory) that are reasons for action and only malleable desires can be altered. In order to decide what to promote and condemn it evaluates malleable desires. It can also evaluate actions, rules, rights, duties, consequences and laws where the moral value of any of these is derived from a prior evaluation of desires. (For example the right act is the act that a person with good desires would perform). Its means of promotion and discouragement are primarily praise and condemnation to enable the voluntary change of such desires and suitably formulated institutions to provide reward and punishment, operating as additional and secondary incentives, to those who would otherwise persist with acting out bad desires and who do not or unable to respond to praise and condemnation.
Desire Utilitarianism is a morally progressive theory that combines with the latest empirical data to attempt to tentatively resolve both classical moral issues such as abortion [6] [7], euthanasia [8], pornography [9] [10], homosexuality [11] and capital punishment [12] and more commonplace issues such as sophistry, negligence, incompetence and recklessness. It regards this provisional approach as one of its strengths and as a point of criticism of other theories. In application it is used first as means to identify and eliminate fallacious, imperfect and incomplete beliefs that can distort the evaluation process and then to identify what relevant empirical data is required, and if it exists, and then evaluates this according to the fulfilment and thwarting of the desires in question.