Utilitarianism, by John Stuart Mill Essay

According to Mill, pleasure should depend on quantity and not quality. For instance, the people who had any feeling of moral obligation are the most desirable pleasure, because those people do not think pleasure as right or wrong (38). “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied” What Mill is trying to say in this assertion is that human beings should not sacrifice their pleasure for others. Also, Mill states that men lose their aspiration when they are too focused on inferior pleasure. If a human does not have no pleasure or feel no pain, then he would not know how to love or desire virtue. When there is pleasure, there will be painful as

According to Mill, utilitarianism is a doctrine that states an action is right insofar as it promotes happiness, and that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of conduct. Happiness according to Mill is “pleasure and the absence of pain” (55) He states that ones can

Utilitarianism defined, is the contention that a man should judge everything based on the ability to promote the greatest individual happiness. In other words Utilitarianism states that good is what brings the most happiness to the most people. John Stuart Mill based his utilitarian principle on the decisions that we make. He says the decisions should always benefit the most people as much as possible no matter what the consequences might be. Mill says that we should weigh the outcomes and make our decisions based on the outcome that benefits the majority of the people. This leads to him stating that pleasure is the only desirable consequence of our decision or actions. Mill believes that human

Mill continues by explaining that once this misunderstanding is corrected, those that comprehend utility, or ‘the greatest happiness principle’, appreciate that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (Mill, Chapter 2). By this account, pleasure and the absence of pain are the only things desirable as ends in themselves; the only inherently “good” things. Consequently, all other experiences and situations are merely desirable to the extent that they provide a basis or springboard for such pleasures. However, it is still important to understand that utilitarianism doesn’t simply require people to follow what makes them happy in a personal sense. Instead, in Mill’s theory morality is determined by the greatest happiness principle: a moral act is that

Mill also argues that not all forms of pleasure are of equal value. Holding that quality of pleasures is certainly better than quantity, Mill states that, "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied, better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied" (598). More specifically, he is stating that there isn't a single intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, even if that person could be more satisfied with his lot as a fool. Being intelligent beings of "higher faculties" in this sense, Mill argues that it is in the everyone's best interest to abide by the utilitarian standard, or the pursuit of the greatest

Simply put, John Stuart Mill believed that the end of all action is happiness and, in turn, objectivism about intrinsic value as justifiable by argument. “The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (Ch. II, paragraph 2). Mill describes utility as the foundation of morals based on the promotion of happiness. He argues that some kinds of pleasures are deemed more desirable and more valuable than other pleasures. It is implausible, he maintains, to hold that “the estimation of pleasures should be supposed to depend on quantity alone” (Ch. II, Paragraph 4). According to Mill, he describes the intellectual pleasures, as opposed to sensory pleasures

In the essay “Utilitarianism” by John Stuart Mill, he explains his support for utilitarianism and argues any misconceptions of it. In his essay he talks about the difference between higher and lower pleasures and what significance they have in his utilitarian moral theory. His theory is based on the rule that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” Many people experience different kinds of pleasure and he talks about how they can differ in quality and quantity.

One of the most important ethical claims to me in the Mill reading was in Utilitarianism. The part about the greatest happiness principle is something that as I get older I have realized that this is the most important part of life. The greatest happiness principle is something that all humans should strive for otherwise what are they living for? I believe you only have one life so why would you not want it to be as pleasurable as possible. My own views about the greatest happiness principle are similar to Mill’s views. Why would anyone want to do something if in the end it does not make them happy? Having said that, I understand that it is not always possible to choose an action that makes everyone in the world happy and that sometimes you

In Chapter 2 of Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill, talks about the “Greatest Happiness Principle”. He describes actions as explanation of happiness. Actions that are right will generally promote happiness whereas actions that are wrong will generally bring about the opposite feeling. He then goes on to explain that happiness is defined as without pain and with pleasure, and unhappiness is with pain and without pleasure. Stuart goes on to explain that the greatest happiness principle is the goal.

Mill writes of utilitarianism in the eponymous work Utilitarianism. According to his work utilitarianism is a means of deciding the moral value of actions. Mill’s theory takes a consequentialist view of actions, saying that the moral worth of an action is decided by the outcome, or consequence. This decision of moral worth is determined by whether the outcome maximizes happiness and minimizes the reverse of happiness. Mill writes that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” Happiness is defined as pleasure and the absence of pain according to Mill, and the action must be considered for the outcome it brings to the most people. This happiness, or pleasure and lack of pain,

In “Utilitarianism,” John Stuart Mill responds to several objections to the utilitarian view, but what exactly is the utilitarianism view. Utilitarianism is the view that an action is good to the extent that it produces the greatest possible overall happiness or utility. According to Mill, utility is the pleasure itself and the absence of pain. What this means is that pleasure and the absence of pain are the only things desirable as end in themselves. It's the only things that is inherently good. A good example of utilitarianism would have to be about the Trolley Problem or to me gay rights. With gay rights, legalizing gay marriage would cause the greatest amount of happiness. Therefore, any circumstance, event, or experiences is desirable only if it for pleasure.

Ergo, Mill distinguishes between higher and lower pleasures in order to respond to The Philosophy of Swine Objection. However, the distinction between quality and quantity is not new. Mill himself asserts that »utilitarian writers in general have placed the superiority of mental over bodily pleasures.«7 What is new in Mill’s theory is that he rejects to measure pleasure in any kind of numerical scale. His scale is an ordinal scale, in which pleasures are ordered in terms of preference, i.e. pleasure A is greater than pleasure B and so on. The problem with that measurement is that it is not transitive, which means that if pleasure A is greater than pleasure B and pleasure B is greater than pleasure C, it does not follow that pleasure A is greater than pleasure C, simply because we are not talking about quantity but quality. For example, I may prefer banana ice cream to chocolate ice cream, and I may prefer chocolate ice cream to strawberry ice cream, but I may also prefer strawberry ice cream to

How does one, for example, compare the admiration of a painting to the admiration of music? Mill goes on to state that utilitarianism is not concerned as much with the pleasure of the individual as it is with the pleasure of society in general. He observes the objection that this demands a motivation to promote the greatest happiness for all, but counters by removing motivation from the picture. Utilitarianism is not concerned with motivations, but with ends. Another objection concerns the inability to determine all possible outcomes of all possible choices in a given situation. Mill means to apply utilitarianism to rules, not to individual situations (unless a precedent has not been established). Mill also responds to a number of objections which are unanswerable by many philosophies, including utilitarianism's godlessness, the infirmities of human nature, and whether happiness is attainable or necessary. Mill only states that these objections apply equally well to other philosophies, and does not directly address them.

In Utilitarianism, Mill addresses many objections to his general moral theory of promoting happiness and decreasing pain. Through Mill's rebuttals to the objections, his ideas about well-being become clear. Although his moral theory is important to understand the basis upon which his ideas about well-being sit, they miust stand alone so that one can determine to which theory of well-being Mill adhered. Mill's ideas about well-being spring from his explanation of the difference between contentment and true happiness. Leading up to his ultimate discussion of the distinction, Mill attempts to clear up misunderstandings about what pleasure and happiness are. The swine objection involves misunderstandings about pleasure and the difference between animals and humans, and Mill addresses it in clearing up the misunderstandings. The objection claims that

In this paper I will present and critically assess the concept of the principle of utility as given by John Stuart Mill. In the essay “What Utilitarianism Is” #, Mill presents the theory of Utilitarianism, which he summarizes in his “utility” or “greatest happiness principle” # (Mill 89). Mill’s focus is based on an action’s resulting “happiness,” # pleasure and absences of pain, or “unhappiness,” # discomfort and the nonexistence of contentment, rather than the intentions involved (Mill 89). After evaluating Mill’s principle, I will then end this essay by discussing my personal opinion about the doctrine and how I believe it can be altered to better suit real-life situations.