UTILITARIANISM - Definition

Pronunciation:		yoo`tili'tehreeu`nizum
WordNet Dictionary

	Definition:	[n] doctrine that the useful is the good; especially as elaborated by Jeremy Bentham and James Mill; the aim was said to be the greatest happiness for the greatest number

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	See Also:	doctrine, ism, philosophy, school of thought

Products Dictionary

	Definition:	Utilitarianism In UTILITARIANISM, published in 1863, Mill discusses the nuances of his foundational ethical principal that: Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. more details ...

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

	Definition:	\Util`ita"rianism\, n. 1. The doctrine that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the end and aim of all social and political institutions. --Bentham. 2. The doctrine that virtue is founded in utility, or that virtue is defined and enforced by its tendency to promote the highest happiness of the universe. --J. S. Mill. 3. The doctrine that utility is the sole standard of morality, so that the rectitude of an action is determined by its usefulness.