UTILITARIANISM

the term brought into general use by J. S. Mill to describe the ethical and political theory which makes ‘the greatest happine of the greatest number’ the supreme end or criterion of conduct. The other chief representative of utilitarianism proper is Bentham, who first suggested the term and who held that the sole po ible rational motive is the expectation of pleasure as measured by the intensity, propinquity, and duration of the pleasure and the strength of the expectation, and that the rule of morals should be founded on these considerations. The chief value of the principle in his hands was the influence it had in the direction of liberty and equality, and also on legislation.