Benthamism

1 definition found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Benthamism \Ben"tham*ism\, n.
     That phase of the doctrine of utilitarianism taught by Jeremy
     Bentham; the doctrine that the morality of actions is
     estimated and determined by their utility; also, the theory
     that the sensibility to pleasure and the recoil from pain are
     the only motives which influence human desires and actions,


     and that these are the sufficient explanation of ethical and
     jural conceptions.
     [1913 Webster]