Define Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is a consequential theory which looks at bringing the greatest happiness to the greatest amount of people following the greatest happiness principle. It is a relativist theory which means it looks at each individual situation in regards to what should happen or what the outcome should be. In addition to this, Utilitarianism is teleological and therefore will never sticking to moral absoloutes which means it is incompatible with deontological thinkers. It follows the utility principle which means if something is useful it is then morally good. Furthermore, it follows the saying 'the ends justify the means' which suggests that whatever you have done to get to the outcome (if it is good) then your actions are always justificable. There are two main branches of Utilitarianism, Act and Rule. Act looks at each act that you perform in order to get to the end point, taking into account each situation whilst Rule Utilitarianism is where you see what rules you can follow to bring about the greatest happiness.