utilitarianism
Noun
Meaning
The doctrine that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the end and aim of all social and political institutions.
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.
The doctrine that utility is the sole standard of morality, so that the rectitude of an action is determined by its usefulness.
Source: Webster's dictionarySynonyms
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Examples
The victory of vivisection marks a great advance in the triumph of ruthless, non-moral utilitarianism over the old world of ethical law; a triumph in which we, as well as animals, are already the victims, and of which Dachau and Hiroshima mark the more recent achievements.
Enlightened utilitarianism is but the first in a series of totalitarian, sectarian movements to be followed later by Positivism, Communism and National Socialism.
Like Americans, people outside America want fun, want an emotional compensation for the utilitarianism and calculation that mark the rest of their lives.
Act utilitarianism maintains that an action is right if it maximises utility; rule utilitarianism maintains that an action is right if it conforms to a rule that maximises utility.
Bentham is, however, credited with founding utilitarianism when he wrote An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation.
Even though Mackintosh became known as the ‘pioneer’ of the movement, his designs were far removed from the bleak utilitarianism of Modernism.