Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism, theory of ethics that holds that the rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by the happiness its consequences produce. The theory dates from the 18th-century thinker Jeremy Bentham, who believed that actions are motivated by pleasure and pain and that happiness can be assessed by the quantity of pleasure. His follower John Stuart Mill later argued in Utilitarianism (1863) that some pleasures should be sought for their intrinisic quality. He interpreted the principles of utilitarianism as a basis for the struggle for political and social reforms.

See also: Bentham, Jeremy; Mill; Watson-Watt, Sir Robert Alexander.