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. John Stuart Mill
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Utilitarianism is a theory of ethics that can be summarized in the statement, "The right action is the one that brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number." The theory was proposed by Jeremy Bentham, who argued that morality was based on human happiness. He proposed that all human actions should be judged solely on their effects on happiness, not on the intentions of the person doing the action.

Source: Utilitarianism

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