Both Uses of
utilitarian
in
Moby Dick
- His own person was the exact embodiment of his utilitarian character.†
Chpt 16-18 *utilitarian = concerned with usefulness rather than beauty or style
- Though Jeremy Bentham's skeleton, which hangs for candelabra in the library of one of his executors, correctly conveys the idea of a burly-browed utilitarian old gentleman, with all Jeremy's other leading personal characteristics; yet nothing of this kind could be inferred from any leviathan's articulated bones.†
Chpt 55-57
Definitions:
-
(1)
(utilitarian as in: utilitarian furniture) concerned with usefulness rather than beauty, style, or philosophical purity -- with the goal of increasing general happiness or well-being
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
There are a variety of utilitarian philosophies referenced as utilitarianism.