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1. (n.) utilitarianism
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.
2. utilitarianism
utilitarian quality or character.
Etymology: (1820–30)
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| Definition of 'utilitarianism' |
Princeton's WordNet |
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1. (noun) utilitarianism
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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| Definition of 'utilitarianism' |
Webster Dictionary |
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1. (noun) utilitarianism
the doctrine that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the end and aim of all social and political institutions
2. (noun) utilitarianism
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
3. (noun) utilitarianism
the doctrine that utility is the sole standard of morality, so that the rectitude of an action is determined by its usefulness
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| Definitions of 'utilitarianism' |
The Nuttall Encyclopedia |
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1. utilitarianism
the theory which makes happiness the end of life and the test of virtue, and maintains that "actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, and wrong as they tend to produce the reverse," a theory characterised by Carlyle, who is never weary of denouncing it, as "reducing the infinite celestial soul of man to a kind of hay-balance for weighing hay and thistles on, pleasures and pains on." The great apostle of this theory was John Stuart Mill, and the great father of it Jeremy Bentham.
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Definitions of utilitarianism 
