How Does Mill Determine Happiness

In the fourth chapter of Utilitarianism J.S. Mill attempts to offer “proof” of the utility principle. Utilitarianism is the moral theory that dictates "actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness" (Mill 10) In order to succeed, Mill must prove that the happiness is the only thing that is desirable in and of itself. It is especially interesting then, that he begins his chapter on proof by saying “To be incapable of proof by reasoning is common to all first principles” (35) Mill goes on to explain that by appealing to our faculties that judge fact, namely internal consciousness and the senses, it is evident that the only way proof something is desirable is that people actually desire it (35). Happiness is one of those desirable goods, he claims, since all people desire their own happiness. Mill further asserts that everything else people desire is part of their happiness, or a means to that end (36). His argument can therefore then be divided into two main sections: the first is spent trying to prove that happiness is the only end desirable for its own sake and the second is concerned with the assertion that nothing else is truly desirable on its own. However, these conclusions are far from irrefutable. In this paper, I argue that Mill does not provide sufficient evidence that happiness is valuable for its own sake due his excessively broad definition of what constitutes happiness and lack of

The only proof that a sound is audible, is that people hear it: and so of the other sources of our experience” (35). Therefore the justification that something is desirable can only be empirically determined by using our senses and reason. Mill believes this to be obvious and cannot believe anyone would dispute it