system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Under utilitarianism, is torture ok if the torturer is a sadist?

Clearly, defending severe torture is very hard. But is it acceptable for prison guards to put a prisoner in solitary confinement for no reason if they have a good laugh about it in the break room?
gpt
Generally no. However, this does seem like a good opportunity to bring up the "utility monster."

In general, we think that the suffering of the tortured outweighs whatever pleasure is gained by the torturer. However, that's mostly coming from our understanding of the average human person. If there were a creature that would gain more utility for every bit of harm it caused, a "utility monster" if you will, then yes, it would be justified in torturing by utilitarian standards. In fact, it would be unjustifiable for the tortured to avoid their torture, simply because it would just make this creature *that* happy.

There is nothing in principle that says this kind of thing can't exist. This is one of the big reasons a lot of people have problems with utilitarianism. Maybe we should value something else besides just utility.