Talk:Utilitarianism (book)

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The following is not about the book Utilitarianism, by John Stuart Mill:

Utilitarianism (Latin utilis, “useful”), in ethics, the doctrine that what is useful is good, and consequently, that the ethical value of conduct is determined by the utility of its results. The term utilitarianism is more specifically applied to the proposition that the supreme objective of moral action is the achievement of the greatest happiness for the greatest number. This objective is also considered the aim of all legislation and is the ultimate criterion of all social institutions. The utilitarian theory of ethics is generally opposed to ethical doctrines in which some inner sense or faculty, often called the conscience, is made the absolute arbiter of right and wrong. Utilitarianism is likewise at variance with the view that moral distinctions depend on the will of God and that the pleasure given by an act to the individual alone who performs it is the decisive test of good and evil.

It's at most a stub for an article on utilitarianism, the ethical theory. But there's already a fleshed-out Utilitarianism article. I've moved all of the above to this discussion page and put in its place a stub on the book Utilitarianism. —Radgeek 01:39, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)