Thank you, I thought you'd never ask. Utilitarianism is the philosophical principle that anything that increases the net total of world happiness is a Good Thing, while anything that decreases it is a Bad Thing. For example, if B & S were to release a new album which was truly marvellous, this would be a Good Thing, because more people would be made happy by this than would be made sad, but if Des O'Connor were to release a new album, this would be a Bad Thing. In the same way, if Manchester United were to be relegated from the Premier, this would be a Good Thing. Even though they have a frighteningly large following, far more people hate them. Everything I know about utilitarianism comes from hanging around with people studying it in their first year, along with politics and economics. I won't say where this was, because you'll call me an elitist, but please note that I didn't complete a degree there. Regards, Ian -- Ian W Halliday, BA Hons, MIMIS, AAIBF Snr, ATMB, CL +64 25 245 6089 (GMT+12) http://baptism.co.nz Excel in all we do -- Word documents not accepted -- see http://baptism.co.nz/word.html +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+