utilitarianism
[yoo-til-i-tair-ee-uh-niz-uh m]
- the ethical doctrine that virtue is based on utility, and that conduct should be directed toward promoting the greatest happiness of the greatest number of persons.
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Origin of utilitarianism
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
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utilitarianismpragmatismheterodoxyadvantageadvisabilitybenefitconvenienceeffectivenessefficiencyfitnesshelpfulnessopportunismopportunityorderpolicypracticalityproprietyprudencesuitabilityusefulnessExamples from the Web for utilitarianism
Contemporary Examples
But here's what utilitarianism, according to Williams, leaves out of the picture: individual agency.
Historical Examples
But the mischievousness of Utilitarianism does not stop here.
Old-Fashioned Ethics and Common-Sense MetaphysicsWilliam Thomas Thornton
Utilitarianism was too much for it, and its stones fell to Macadam.
Highways & Byways in SussexE.V. Lucas
It is nothing but utilitarianism, pure and simple, after all.
On the Genesis of SpeciesSt. George Mivart
And Utilitarianism, as we saw, admits this maxim no less than other systems of Ethics.
The Methods of EthicsHenry Sidgwick
This question is often ignored in expositions of Utilitarianism.
The Methods of EthicsHenry Sidgwick
utilitarianism
- the doctrine that the morally correct course of action consists in the greatest good for the greatest number, that is, in maximizing the total benefit resulting, without regard to the distribution of benefits and burdens
- the theory that the criterion of virtue is utility
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for utilitarianism
n.
1827, from utilitarian + -ism.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
utilitarianism
A system of ethics according to which the rightness or wrongness of an action should be judged by its consequences. The goal of utilitarian ethics is to promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Jeremy Bentham, an English philosopher, was the founder of utilitarianism; John Stuart Mill was its best-known defender.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.