From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishutilitarianismu‧til‧i‧tar‧i‧an‧is‧m /juːˌtɪləˈteəriənɪzəm $ -ˈter-/ noun [uncountable] RPthe political belief that an action is good if it helps the largest number of people
Examples from the Corpus
utilitarianism• There was a strong emphasis on efficiency based on the ideas of Jeremy Bentham and utilitarianism in all this legislation.• If utilitarianism has no way of making equity matter, it does not follow that equity is unimportant or insignificant.• In this connection Hume propounds a kind of utilitarianism for which the good is essentially the useful, in terms of promoting human happiness.• We may call this the rigorist interpretation or version of utilitarianism.• On the face of it, this criticism carries the day against any rule utilitarianism which is genuinely distinguishable from act utilitarianism.• In effect, the Fabians skewed utilitarianism in favour of the principle of social solidarity.• That utilitarianism needs some such additional clause to be in the intended spirit of Bentham is beyond doubt. 