Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The belief that the value of a thing or an action is determined by its utility.
- n. The 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.
- n. The quality of being utilitarian: housing of bleak utilitarianism.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The 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. Utilitarianism originated with the marquis Cesare Bonesana Beccaria (1735-93), but its great master was Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). He held that the sole possible rational motive is the expectation of pleasure, as measured by the intensity, propinquity, and duration of the pleasure, and the strength of the expectation. Utilitarian ethics, however, does not insist that such considerations need or ought to determine action in special cases, but only that the rules of morals should be founded upon them. These views greatly, and advantageously, influenced ethical thought and legislation in France, England, and the United States.
Wiktionary
- n. philosophy A system of ethics based on the premise that something's value may be measured by its usefulness.
- n. philosophy the theory that action should be directed toward achieving the "greatest happiness for the greatest number of people"; hedonistic universalism.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The doctrine that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the end and aim of all social and political institutions.
- n. 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.
- n. The doctrine that utility is the sole standard of morality, so that the rectitude of an action is determined by its usefulness.
WordNet 3.0
- 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
Examples
“It's one thing to show that utilitarianism is not good.”
“I learned that utilitarianism is a kind of consequentialism.”
The Huffington Post: Angie McQuaig: How To Hyper-Personalize Education
“Recently, my interest in utilitarianism was piqued by a conversation with a philosopher friend, so I took to the web.”
The Huffington Post: Angie McQuaig: How To Hyper-Personalize Education
“And, yes, I know that utilitarianism is not the end all, be all of philosphical morality.”
“Step two is: show that utilitarianism is not defeated by objections.”
“On the second account, call it equal-concern utilitarianism, utilitarianism is one way of fleshing out the core intuition Kymlicka believes undergirds every plausible contemporary moral theory: To wit, people matter and (in some sense) matter equally.”
“Such theories are sometimes described as a utilitarianism of rights.”
“The phrase utilitarianism, which came into use as the summary of his teaching, has often been misunderstood and misapplied, and perhaps some excuse was found for the misinterpretation of his meaning in his decision that his dead body should be given up for the purpose of anatomy and not buried in earth to be of service {281} only to the worms.”
A History of the Four Georges and of William IV, Volume IV (of 4)
“A thorough argument in favor of utilitarianism is beyond the scope of a blog comment, but I’ll at least point to arguments that go beyond “assume utilitarianism.””
“This “end justifying the means” mentality displayed by Ozymandias shows him to be a clear adherent of utilitarianism, which is the ethical school that teaches that moral action consists of those actions which produce the greatest benefit for the greatest number of people.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘utilitarianism’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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phrontistery-u
from phrontistery.info
uxorious, uxorial, uvid, uvelloid, uvala, utriform, utriculiform, utricle, utricide, utraquist, utinam, utilitarianism and 175 more...
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-ism's -logies
acosmism, absurdism, absolutism, ableism, aestheticism, alarmism, allotheism, anachronism, animalculism, analogism, animatism, animism and 464 more...
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H.Incandenza's list
kertwang, converge, lynchism, utilitarianism, hornswoggle, abide, omniscience, unctuous, sanctimonious, vespertine, vicarious, sic and 4 more...
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big book gre
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philosophical concepts
Different concepts and branches of philosophy which haven't become independent fields of investigation. For example, "physicalism" is valid but not "physics", "scientism" but not "science", "cogni...
philosophy, ontology, epistemology, ethics, logic, nominalism, analytic philosophy, semiotics, structuralism, deconstructionism, postmodernism, skepticism and 40 more...
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-isms
fascism, anarchism, satanism, racism, racialism, nordicism, nazism, socialism, catholicism, national socialism, paganism, hinduism and 67 more...
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quality words
This is a mix of new words I've read studying for the GRE verbal and words I use normally. I also check back on these words if I don't use them often enough.
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List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
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Big Book #2 List
absolution, restitution, contrition, moratorium, nautical, nirvana, pandemonium, perennial, symposium, dialectic, dipsomaniacal, ecumenical and 117 more...
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DEF's list
Obscure Words
obfuscate, harbinger, morose, meniscus, conspicuous, grandiose, cogitated, matron, erudite, oness, apothegms, assuage and 475 more...
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Philosophical Jargon
Words philosophical writers use to give the illusion of technical competence, including up-trippingly specialised senses of words that have other jobs during daylight hours.
akrasia, akrates, particularism, particularist, mereology, deontology, cognitivism, naturalism, anti-naturalism, ethics, phenomenology, metaethics and 220 more...
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"ism"
antinomianism, pantheism, neologism, solipsism, misogynism, misandrism, opportunism, opportunist, idealism, Epicureanism, absolutism, absolutist and 20 more...
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Can We Get Along?
Words to do with concepts of human interaction and the way individuals are positioned or viewed within society.
cohousing, misanthropy, multiculturalism, dwb, anarchy, quietist, piurci, confelicity, community, casual carpool, eupsychia, reconciliation and 44 more...
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OrbitalCombustion's Words
nepenthe, phrontistery, peregrination, pervicacious, sinistrality, phallogocentric, prolixity, leptokurtic, ineffable, haecceity, lucubration, vicissitudes and 1026 more...
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Philosophy for beginners
Standard words and phrases used in philosophy
ontology, metaphysics, existentialism, logic, epistemology, aesthetics, pragmatism, phenomenology, idealism, empiricism, realism, nominalism and 24 more...
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