John Stuart Mill And Utilitarianism

John Stuart Mill’s argument on the government’s role is an anti-perfectionist and utilitarian approach. Utilitarianism is basing an action on what would maximize the most happiness among people. This theory is composed of two components the account of utility which is what is intrinsically good and the Principle of Utility that determines what actions are right based on their outcome. Mill’s take on utilitarianism is that there are different levels of pleasures, where intellectual enjoyment is a higher ranking on pleasure. Moreover, Mill claims that to achieve the greatest happiness of a group of people is for the government to be an impartial judge. Mill also establishes the harm principle which states “That principle is, that the sole end

Mill states that for the most part speech and discussions aren’t harmful to society, so it doesn’t violate the harm principle. There are two branches to his argument for the individual’s ability to freely speak his or her mind without repercussions. The first branch is that to suppress an individual’s expression of his or her opinion is an assumption of infallibility, which is to obstruct other opinions that criticize one’s own beliefs due to the assumption that your knowledge is errorless. The issue with restraining freedom of speech is that it prevents people from receiving the truth, because it is necessary to take in consideration all perspectives on a belief to come to a logical conclusion. Furthermore, this is detrimental on society because it isolates society from moral truths and affects the well-being on the individual and the overall group of people. The second branch of Mill’s argument is that another harmful outcome of limiting free speech to society is dead dogma. Mill asserts that “the dogma becoming a mere formal profession, inefficacious for good, but cumbering the ground, and preventing the growth of any real and heartfelt conviction, from reason or personal experience,” (Mill 50). Dead dogma is when a belief has been accepted as a truth by majority of a community to where the discussion of its validity ceases. Without continuous discussion and opposing opinions, meanings will be lost and the reasoning behind our judgements get forgotten. In addition, that accepted belief or truth becomes stagnant and does not develop