From the Latin utilĭtas, utility is the interest, gain or fruit obtained from something. The term also allows to name the quality of useful (that can serve or be used in some sense).
Something useful serves to satisfy a need. For example, if a person wants to open a bottle, the corkscrew is a useful tool to fulfill his goal. A subject who intends to paint a wall will have the paint and the brush as useful elements for his task. It is possible to distinguish between total utility (the utility provided by the amount of a good consumed) and marginal utility (the increase in total utility produced by the last unit of that good consumed). The marginal utility is diminishing: As the consumption of a good increases, the satisfaction produced by each new unit is less than that produced by the previous good.
This can be clearly seen in the case of food. A person who is hungry will feel a great satisfaction when eating the first slice of pizza. The second portion will generate less satisfaction, and so on until the subject is satisfied and the good (the pizza) is no longer useful. In the field of computing, the term utility has also been used. In this case, it refers to any type of tool that is used with the sole and clear objective of serving not only to carry out the construction of a certain program, but also for its subsequent execution. No less important is the word that we are analyzing in the field of Law. In this case, it is common to speak of what is called the Forest Catalog of Public Utility. As its name indicates, it is a list of all the mountains considered to be of “public service”. For a territory of this type to be cataloged as such, it must contribute significantly to regulating what would be a hydrographic basin, which would palpably reduce rockfall, be declared a protective forest or be essential for soil conservation, among other characteristics. In the field of economics and finance, profit is associated with the profit obtained from a good or an investment. The one who invests 500 pesos in buying wholesale products and, after reselling them at retail, obtains 650 pesos, has a profit of 150 pesos. That is, in this case, we could determine that the term utility becomes synonymous with benefit. Because it would be the difference between the expenses that a certain business has and the income that it has obtained. Finally, we must emphasize that in the field of philosophy the word utility also assumes a special role. Specifically, the word utilitarianism does, which is used to define an ethical doctrine whose main maxim is that the usefulness of an action for beings will determine their morality.
