summum bonum

American  

[soom-oom boh-noom, suhm-uhm boh-nuhm] / ˈsʊm ʊm ˈboʊ nʊm, ˈsʌm əm ˈboʊ nəm /

noun

Latin.

1. the highest or chief good.

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summum bonum British  

/ ˈsʊmʊm ˈbɒnʊm /

noun

1. the principle of goodness in which all moral values are included or from which they are derived; highest or supreme good

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Example Sentences

After all, if what is good for a nation is more important than what is good for a family, surely the greatest good, the secular summum bonum, is the good of the human race.

From Salon • Aug. 23, 2011

If it be not in accordance with your ideas of the summum bonum, remember that it is not his.

From The Gay Adventure A Romance by Bird, Richard

And the tendency to literature, as represented by Emerson, is the farthest opposite of Communism, finding its summum bonum in individualism and incoherent instead of organic inspiration.

From History of American Socialisms by Noyes, John Humphrey

Similarly the conception of the self as a moral unity arises naturally out of the impossibility of finding the summum bonum in a succession of transient states of consciousness such as hedonism for example postulates.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 7 "Equation" to "Ethics" by Various

The summum bonum is the maximum of pleasure with the minimum of pain.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 2 "Demijohn" to "Destructor" by Various