Utilitarianisms

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A philosophy that advocates for actions that result in the greatest overall happiness or utility for the majority
2. An ethical theory emphasizing the outcomes of actions, suggesting that the most moral choice is the one that maximizes well-being
3. A perspective in moral philosophy that evaluates the rightness of an action based on its contribution to overall happiness or utility for all affected individuals

Etymology: Utilitarianisms is simply the plural of "utilitarianism", so it names more than one school or variety of the doctrine, the kind of thing a philosophy student might list when comparing Bentham's ideas with later versions. The base word is built from "utilitarian" plus the suffix "-ism", which turns an adjective into a name for a system of belief. The adjective "utilitarian" goes back to "utility", which passed into English through Old French "utilite" from Latin "utilitas", meaning usefulness or advantage. The Latin root is "utilis", "useful", itself from "uti", "to use". The "-arian" ending, carried through Latin and French, marks a person or thing connected with a practice, so a utilitarian is someone devoted to usefulness. Attaching "-ism" gives the doctrine its name: the view that the right action is the one producing the greatest good for the greatest number. Because the philosophy has been argued in several forms, writers sometimes speak of its varieties in the plural.

Synonyms: pragmatism, functionalism, practicality, consequentialism, instrumentalism

Antonyms: idealism, formalism, deontology