utilitarianism
nounThe belief that the value of a thing or an action is determined by its utility.
nounThe ethical theory proposed by Jeremy Bentham and James Mill that all action should be directed toward achieving the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.
nounThe quality of being utilitarian.
nounThe doctrine that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the sole aim of all public action, together with the hedonistic theory of ethics, upon which this doctrine rests.
nounThe doctrine that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the end and aim of all social and political institutions.
nounThe 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.
nounThe doctrine that utility is the sole standard of morality, so that the rectitude of an action is determined by its usefulness.
nounA system of ethics based on the premise that something’s value may be measured by its usefulness.
nounthe theory that action should be directed toward achieving the “greatest happiness for the greatest number of people”;
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