Definition of: utilitarianism

(y·til′ə·târ′ē·ən·iz′əm) noun
1. Philos. A system that holds usefulness to be the end and criterion of action; specifically, the ethical doctrine that actions derive their moral quality from their usefulness as means to some end, especially as means productive of happiness or unhappiness. Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, and John Stuart Mill (who coined the word utilitarianism), understood by it the ethical theory which makes the pleasure or happiness of the individual or of mankind the end and criterion of the morally good and right.
2. The doctrine, in civics and politics, that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the sole end and criterion of all public action.
3. Devotion to mere material interests and aims.