John Stuart Mill Research Paper

Lalnunpuii Huber

Essay 2

Professor Daniel Jenkins

October 22, 2017

Mill’s Utilitarian Theory

John Stuart Mill is a British philosopher, political economist, civil servant and member of parliament from London, England (May 20, 1806 – May 8, 1873). He was an influential liberal thinker of the 19th century and was the godson of an English philosopher and founder of utilitarianism, Jeremy Benthan. Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill is an essay that is written to provide support to the theory of utilitarianism and to respond to any confusions around it.

Mill defines Utilitarianism in chapter two as a theory based on the principle that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse

He states that there are different qualities of pleasure. There are simple pleasures like eating and drinking and basic instincts and there are also higher pleasures like studying for a test, music, art and other intellectual accomplishments. According to Mill, the higher pleasures are intrinsically better quality than the lower pleasures. When making any moral judgement, the theory utilitarianism, “takes into account quality as well as quantity” (p6) from the pleasure. Quality is determined by someone who has experienced both the two pleasures. He makes his argument by saying that, “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool or the pig think otherwise, that is because they know only their own side of the question” (p8). We can conclude by saying that the best judge of pleasure’s quality in Mills opinion are people who have experienced both higher and lower pleasure. Mill also stated that happiness consisted of, “a few brief pains, and many and various pleasures”. Happiness is attainable by proper education and mental cultivation. He also believes that it is certainly possible to do without happiness, it is not desirable nor even noble to do so. Mill argues that the Martyr must sacrifice happiness only if it increases the sum of total happiness and only if it is for a greater cause to alleviate the suffering of others. If there is no benefit for others, he states that “other purpose doesn’t deserve admiration more than does the ascetic living on top of his pillar”