It is not self-evident, and many Utilitarians agree that it is not even true, that the best way to secure their objective of the greatest happiness all round is to have agents each of whom is pursuing, as such, the greatest happiness all round.
(Bernard Williams, “Politics and Moral Character,” chap. 4 in Moral Luck: Philosophical Papers 1973-1980 [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981], 54-70, at 59 [essay first published in 1978])
Note from KBJ: The same is true of ethical egoism. The best way to secure the objective of your own greatest happiness is to pursue something other than your own greatest happiness.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 