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John Stuart Mill Chapter 4 Analysis

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In chapters 3-4, Mill explores what constitutes the theory of Utilitarianism, which he outlined in the previous two chapters. Mill first explains that for any moral philosophy to be relevant, it must contain built-in consequences for those who do not abide by it, for if it does not, there would be no reason to respect its principle. Mill writes that Utilitarianism, along with other moral philosophies, has extrinsic and intrinsic motivational factors. Extrinsic factors include pressure from peers, and fear of displeasing God. Intrinsic factors, which Mill believes are more influential, are rooted in one’s conscience. Mill argues that the human conscience is a natural development, and since Utilitarianism is strongly based from the conscience, Utilitarianism is thus a natural viewpoint or morality. Mill then goes on to investigate the root of morality, which …show more content…

One would have a hard time trying to argue that happiness is not desirable, and that human desires do not, in fact, stem from happiness. One objection I might have with Mill is the belief that intrinsic motivational factors outweigh extrinsic motivational factors. I think that the fear of displeasing God can, in some situations, outweigh the beliefs of one’s conscience. In this scenario, it could also be argued, however, that if one truly believes that God is pious, than their conscience should reflect the same values that God outlines, thus making this seemingly external motivational factor an internal motivational factor as well. Overall I would agree with Mill’s argument for Utilitarian morality. I think that the desire for happiness, whether virtuous, or driven by less virtuous factors such as greed, is the ultimate goal for everyone. Since this is the case, I think Utilitarianism is an acceptable philosophy, and I look forward to learning about other moral philosophies in upcoming

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Mills explains Utilitarianism as achieving life’s goals, it is what everyone wants or seek for. He further explains that utilitarianism promotes the quality of life. Furthermore, utilitarianism is connected to happiness, because we all seek to achieve different goals in life, and those goals are what makes up happy. We all want certain things in life, or want to achieve certain things. Utilitarianism promotes happiness, happiness exclude pain, suffering, struggles, stress, and anything that makes one ‘unhappy’ or ‘sad’.

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Critiques of Kantian moral philosophy on the basis of emptiness come from a variety of thinkers and from many different schools of thought. For example, Mill claims the universal law permits commonly immoral behavior and can only become consistent by resorting to Utilitarianism. ‘ ‘All he shows is that the consequences of their universal adoption would be such as no one would choose to incur’’ (Mill.Uti.162). Mill criticizes Kant for failing to identify ‘‘the actual duties of morality’’ (Mill.

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Everyone since they were kids wanted to believe in the supernatural. It could be for different reasons some want to know that there is another life instead of just ours. They want to know that if they die there will be something after it. Some people believe in ghosts because they have had an experience with one. In the story Tim and Louise both thought they were just buying a nice house and were going to make it into a restaurant not knowing they were actually in for.

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Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that focuses on outcomes and consequences. When one considers the theory of utilitarianism, it must be understood that the pleasure is a fundamental moral good and the aim is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. So, when a human is going through the decision making process it is of the utmost importance to look forward at the consequences of the decision and determine if the decision will maximize pleasure and minimize pain. John Stuart Mill, a nineteenth century philosopher focused on the theory of utilitarianism or the Greatest Happiness Principle and claimed that the maximization of happiness for the greatest quantity of people is the ultimate goal. One issue that we face in modern day America that

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Mill’s system of ethics, Utilitarianism, is focused on promoting the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Mill evaluates the moral actions in favor of the quality of the consequences that ensue. For Mill, an action is right insofar as its consequences yield the most happiness. Mill is arguing for ethical good, he is more concerned with the objective consequences instead of the quality of the will of the agent. The scope of his morality encompasses sentient beings.

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John Stuart Mill was a person who seemed to get his life straight and that’s a good thing. His Argument in My Mental History, Chapter V, he says that all Mankind wants is happiness. He states that we seek happiness to only make ourselves and others around us happy, but he states that when we go looking for happiness we can’t seem to find it at all. The only time we find it, is when we aren’t looking for it.

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Mill describes utilitarianism like a hypothesis depend on the basis that if people tend to behave like promoting happiness, it would be a true

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M. Hare’s argument, it can be seen that there exists some issues with utilitarianism. Or, simply apply utilitarianism to this world, and use utilitarianism code to make every decision is wrong since the code of utilitarianism loss consistency in real world. According to utilitarianism, the best moral action is the one that maximizes utility, or happiness. However, happiness is complex. It is generally acknowledged that people who have their physical and emotional needs satisfied and their human rights guaranteed are happy.

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A number of problems surround the second question; the most obvious of which are limited time, the limited capacity of human foresight to calculate the maximum number of happiness, and the inability of the theory to advise on the time frame utilitarianism is to be applied to; how do you know the maximum number of happiness for the next 10 years doesn’t mean greater overall unhappiness in the next 50 years, so what time period should one keep in mind when considering an issue from a utilitarian stand point, 1 year, 5 years, 10, 20? This lack of clarity further adds to the impractical nature of the ideology. There are a myriad number of situations which seem very difficult to resolve without employing utilitarian principles and a very good example is the widespread use of utilitarian principles in bioethics. The best example here would obviously be the famous case of the conjoined twins Mary and Jodie. The facts in front of the court indicated that Mary was the parasitic twin who shared a heart with Jodie.

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Utilitarianism as an Unrealistic Utopia As an optimistic individual the concept of utilitarianism is one I support, however, I am not naive enough to believe it is a realistic possibility. The biggest criticism of utilitarianism is that it is very demanding of people, which is undoubtedly true as even the saintliest of us mortal beings cannot please the philosophy. Amia Srinivasan’s belief that utilitarianism asks of “the wrong things [...] that constitute us as humans” (Srinivasan 8) is a logical and sound objection, as often times, we humans tend to be unpredictable and selfish in our wants and needs. This is not to say that we do not all on some level wish for the ultimate happiness of everyone, but it does suggest that happiness for all is not a realistic possibility, as we do not live in a utopic world with perfect people.

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Rule utilitarianism is a belief in which, an action is morally right, as long as it justified in accordance to a particular law. Utilitarianism is less complicated to understand (compared to other moral theories) because it consists of “doing whatever produces the best consequences” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Virtue Ethics). Mill viewed the greatest happiness principle as the cornerstone of morals, he

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This theory takes consequentialism a step further in that it defines the good as pleasure (much like hedonism) and that it also incorporates the theory of impartialism and stresses that no one counts morally any more or any less than anyone else. Two different theories of utilitarianism stem from John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham. Mill identifies with qualitative utilitarianism, which stresses that certain kinds of pleasures are better than others, and that mental pleasures are superior pleasures to physical pleasures. He argues that anyone who is well-versed enough in a mental pleasure, such as classic literature, would choose the mental pleasure every time over a physical pleasure, such as eating a bar of chocolate. He goes on to say that anyone who would choose the bar of chocolate is simply not well-versed enough in classic literature to be qualified to make that choice, and as such his defense of this argument is a little spotty, as it rules out anyone who may just really like chocolate as

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A man by the name of John Stuart Mill seems to be able to give us some answers to these questions. Mill starts our inquiring journey with defining what utilitarianism stands for. In short he states that it is the construction of utility, which claims that the actions that stimulate happiness in is morally fit and vice versa to be unfit. Happiness is something that we want for

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(Mill, utilitarianism, p.697) To put this into simpler terms, Mill is essentially saying events or experiences are desirable only when it is a source for pleasure, so actions are good when they lead to higher levels of general happiness and they are deemed as bad when it lowers your general level of happiness. However, it is important to note utilitarianism doesn’t say it is morally right for everyone to purse what make them alone happy but instead morality is dictated by what increases the total amount of utility in the world. Pursuing your own happiness at the expense of the majority of social happiness would be viewed as wrong by utilitarian’s. Mill then proceeded to say that morality requires impartial consideration of the interest of everyone involved, its not just about your own happiness.

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What Mill means by utilitarianism is giving the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people. According to Sandel's lecture Mill's utilitarianism uses consequentialist reasoning. Categorical means absolute for example, if someone asks you if you are hungry a you say,"no",

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