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John Stewart Mills Utilitarianism

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I will raise objections to John Stewart Mill’s Hedonic Utilitarianism as many well known philosophers and contemporaries of Mill have done in the past. Mill’s theory is left open for interpretation and can lead to the promotion of unjust actions due to a discrepancy between happiness and good or right actions. It also calls for an individual to weigh moral factors against the aggregate happiness. This can lead to an impractical moral theory and a requirement of the individual to act in a morally heroic manner which entails that others happiness is put above the individual.
John Stewart Mill’s Hedonic Utilitarianism
Morality is defined as a system of behavior that distinguishes what is wrong or right in a given action or behavior. Morality …show more content…

By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure” (Utilitarianism, chapter 2, par 2).
From this primary claim, Mill lays out five additional claims of his theory.
1) Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory of morality.
2) The morality of an action depends on the consequences which they tend to produce.
3) An action is morally right if and only if it leads to the greatest good for the greatest number of people over the greatest length of time.
4) Utilitarianism is a eudaimonistic theory of morality: the good is defined in terms of happiness.
5) Happiness is determined by the intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, and quality of the pleasure.
Objections to Hedonic …show more content…

The theory, which insists on conducting ourselves in ways that leads to a greater majority being happy suggests that individuals must sacrifice their own happiness and seek happiness for others. This concept is not wrong as it is morally right to consider all other individuals happiness. Furthermore, it may inculcate significant values such as care. However, it is possible that individuals are not morally bound by any laws to act in this manner. A willingness and desire to help others should be voluntary and totally guided by free-will and choice rather than an ethical theory. For one, people will bing themselves to act involuntarily in a particular manner in order to please others, and thus, the society would be made of self-created robots that lack the drive of free-will and choice (Schefczyk, n.d.: n.p.). Notwithstanding, Mill provides a moral direction of the moral conscience within us in order for humanity to consider the importance of morality and happiness in an effort to better understand their true

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