The utilitarian ethic is a frail and backwards ethic. It seeks to describe human actions as subject to human reason, when in fact it is not reason that compels us to live and survive; that drives us towards pleasure and away from pain. These values are imposed upon us. Reason has always been the slave of blind passion. Only in chains does reason find for itself a new motivation beyond the pursuit of pleasure or the avoidance of pain. Thus science, thus art, thus culture. It is a mistake to say we prefer knowledge, truth, and beauty, because these things are useful. On the contrary, they are useful because we prefer them.