Utility

Utility in ethico-philosophical terminology, is the doctrine that actions are right because they are useful or tend to promote happiness. It is thus, defined by Mill (Utilitarianisn, p. 9): "The creed-which accepts as the foundation of morals utility, or the greatest happiness principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure." The fundamental objection to the doctrine is thus stated by Dr. Reid (Actie Powers, essay 5, ch. 5): "Agreeableness and utility are not moral conceptions, nor have they any connection with morality. What a man does, merely because it is agreeable, is not virtue." See Fleming, and Krauth, Vocab. of Philos. s.v.