Described in this way, utilitarianism has little in common with the prosaic, visionless notion of the 'merely utilitarian, ' in the sense of a narrowly or mundanely functional or efficient option. No such limited horizon confined the thought and character of the great English-language utilitarian philosophers, whose influence ran its course from the period just before the French Revolution through the Victorian era. Happiness, for them, was more of a cosmic calling, the path to world progress, and whatever was deemed 'utilitarian' had to be useful for that larger and inspiring end, the global minimization of pointless suffering and the global maximization of positive well-being or happiness. It invokes, ultimately, the point of view of universal benevolence. And it is more accurately charged with being too demanding ethically than with being too accommodating of narrow practicality, material interests, self-interestedness, and the like. Bart Schultz
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Utilitarianism, like Kantianism, is not merely an ethical theory which holds that the only good is the greatest good for the greatest number. It is rather an ethic which holds that all human conduct should be appraised according to how it contributes to the greatest possible total amount of well-being or happiness.

Source: The Happiness Philosophers: The Lives And Works Of The Great Utilitarians

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