What is ulititarism?

Answer 1

I may not be the best person to answer this question, but from my understanding 'Utilitarianism' is a philosophical theory about what makes actions good or bad. The idea of Utilitarianism the right decision (in any dilemma) is the one that will create the most happiness. A famous example of this sort of thinking would be the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: though many people died in the explosion, the bombing stopped WWII and potentially saved even more lives (thus the bombing was a 'good decision' as it created more happiness by a greater number of people).

Utilitarianism works in contrast to Deontology, 'Kantian' ethics, which state that there are absolute moral values that cannot be breached. Meaning that any action that does breach these actions "such as killing someone' cannot be considered good as it has breached some innate moral code.

As I said before I'm not the best person to explain this, and these are definitely the sort of ideas that need a lot more room to explain. So if you find this interesting you may want to check out a library, or do a quick Google search. Either will get you tons of results. Hope this helps :)