tiles


Note:  Do not rely on this information. It is very old.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism was first used, to signify a particular standard for judging actions, by Jeremy Bentham, who is said to have borrowed the expression from Galt's Annals of the Parish; but the great exponent of Utilitarianism as a philosophical doctrine is John Stuart Mill. In his treatise upon the subject he sets up the general happiness as the end to be aimed at by human actions, and the standard by which such actions are to be judged is their fitness in bringing about the end aimed at. According to this view, it is by no means necessary that this utility be the apparent and concious motive of any particuloar action, but only that such utility be the ultimate standard by which it be tested.