An intuitive explanation of Harsanyi’s aggregation theorem

Abstract

This theorem attempts to ground utilitarianism upon expected utility theory, the idea that no person’s well-being is more important than any other person’s, and the idea that scenarios where someone benefits but no one is disadvantaged are preferable to scenarios where someone is disadvantaged but no one benefits. The theorem includes numerous assumptions, and the most contested of these is the idea that all individuals’ well-being is equally important (impartiality). The theorem is shown first for the case of two individuals and then generalized to several individuals. The theorem is mathematically sound, in the sense that if the assumptions are accepted, utilitarianism is logically implied – AI-generated abstract.