TERMIUM Plus®

The Government of Canada’s terminology and linguistic data bank.

UTILITARIANISM [1 record]

Record 1 1994-06-01

English

Subject field(s)
  • Medical and Hospital Organization
DEF

A teleological ethical theory which holds that the morality of an act can be determined by whether it produces the greatest good for the greatest number.

CONT

We shall use "utilitarianism" to refer to the moral theory that there is one and only one basic principle in ethics, the principle of utility, which asserts that we ought always to produce the greatest possible balance of value over disvalue (or the least possible balance of disvalue, if only undesirable results can be achieved).

French

Domaine(s)
  • Organisation médico-hospitalière
DEF

Théorie morale téléologique qui cherche ce qu'il convient de faire en fonction d'une finalité, à savoir le plus grand bonheur pour le plus grand nombre.

CONT

[...] Jeremy Bentham définit ainsi l'idéal de l'utilitarisme : «le plus grand bonheur pour le plus grand nombre.» Le bonheur est la somme des plaisirs. Le principe d'utilité détermine si une action a comme conséquence de promouvoir l'accroissement du bonheur de la société. Les conséquences d'une action déterminent sa valeur morale.

Spanish

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