First, there is nothing even remotely utilitarian about Utilitarianism. Bentham was all wet...Mill is only damp (actually, he wrote brilliantly against censorship "If all the world was of one opinion...") Tyrants and murderers DO have a purpose as Thomas Sowell so eloquently points out "even the worst of us can serve as a bad example." Hobbes was the ultimate pessimist. He believed that we should surrender all our liberties to the state to avoid a life "nasty, brutish and short." Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, is one of the more brilliant pieces on morality I have ever read (and it's much harder to digest than Leviathan). Smith held the Chair of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow for a number of years, he was an economist only in a very abstract sense. I do like Kant's Transcendental Aesthetic but beyond that all I can think of to say positive about him is that he was very punctual. We must also factor in that slaughter methods have improved immensely since Bentham...as odd as it may sound Hitler was responsible for many advancements toward the ethical treatment of food animals. Now I want a steak as well!