There are very very few philosophers taught in university classrooms that are even worth reading. The few that are worth reading are mostly ignored (big surprise!). Hume, Kant, Descartes, Mill, Bentham, Marx, Nietszche, Berkeley, Sartre, Hegel, Rousseau, Hobbes, Voltaire, Foucault, Aristotle, etc. are all false philosophies, and only serve to poison the minds of their readers. There are some true elements in the philosophies of these men, but overall, they stink, and all have been debunked. T. Jefferson said after reading Hume that it took him years of reflection and reading to rid his mind of the poison of Hume's philosophy. John Adams ridiculed Hume, and rightly so. There is very little TRUE philosophy taught in public universities. There is so much false philosophy that it only serves to confuse the minds of the unenlightened (by God). They present the cases of these false teachers, then more or less leave you to "pick your poison" as to which one you will believe. Arsenic or strichnine... Before I was saved, I was totally confused by philosophy, but then, after being reborn, I could suddenly see the errors in the thinking of these ungodly men. There is only one true philosophy -the rest are simply lies from the darkened hearts of men.
If the outcome is negative, all a utilitarian can do is change is game plan for next time, sort of a sophisticated "trial and error" philosophy.
Isn't that the essence of conservatism, if I may be so bold? That the institutions and social structures that now exist are the result of millennia of trial-and-error, and that they represent the "tried and true" methods of organizing society? And that, as a result, we ought to be loathe to simply discard them on a whim?