greatest happiness principle
- greatest happiness principle
The view that the morally correct action ‘procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers’ is first formulated by
Hutcheson (1725, second treatise of
An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, iii. 8). But it is especially associated with
Bentham, and is central to classical
utilitarianism . The principle needs a great deal of interpretation, since as it stands it does not speak of issues of distribution, nor of conflicting claims, nor of course of the ways of locating and comparing happinesses.
Philosophy dictionary.
Academic.
2011.
Look at other dictionaries:
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utility principle — noun : greatest happiness principle … Useful english dictionary
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