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John Stuart Mill Utilitarianism

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John Stuart Mill was an English philosopher during the during the 1800s. His main contribution was the idea of utilitarianism. In short utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics holding that the best moral action is the one that maximizes utility. Utility is defined in various ways, but is usually related to the well-being of sentient existence. One of the main essential parts of utilitarianism is the principle of utility. The principle of utility states that actions or behaviors are right in so far as they promote happiness or pleasure, wrong as they tend to produce unhappiness or pain. Utilitarianism provoked a lot of questions and it also answered a lot of questions. Utilitarianism also has a very distinct definition of happiness …show more content…

One of these things is happiness. And within happiness there is pleasure. In utilitarianism everything useful to happiness is good. Everything that has to do with happiness is within the principle of utility. which states, the ethical principle that an action is right in so far as it promotes the greatest happiness of the greatest number of those affected. Happiness is defined as pleasure in the absence of pain (Mill 191). The value of a pleasure depends only on its intensity and duration, and can be quantified precisely. So anytime you feel pain you cannot be happy. If pain is absent in your life you can be happy, but that doesn't mean you are happy. This has to do with pleasure, a pleasure is of higher quality if people would choose it over a different pleasure even if it is accompanied by discomfort, and if they would not trade it for a greater amount of the other pleasure. A person will not choose to become an animal, an educated person will not choose to become ignorant, and so on. This goes back to what happiness and pleasure is. We would not chose an animal or a 4 year beach we have all this knowledge and are aware of our surroundings. The only reason we would consider this is because we remember, as a four year old how fun it was. We remember not having a care in the world, ignorance is bliss. If we are unaware of the dangers in the world then we are happy. That is why we might chose to the a year old, because we are mainly happy all the time as a four year

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Utilitarianism or the Greatest Happiness Principle, accounts actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness (The Norton Introduction to Philosophy, Page 752). The morality of an action depends solely on the consequences of the action. According to Mill no amount of physical pleasure can replace mental pleasure. Every act is permissible once it serves as a means for pleasure and denounces pain. An Action’s consequences are measured and valued according to the number of individual’s happiness.

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The first principle of Utilitarianism is Utility. In John Stuart Mill’s text discussing his theory on Utilitarianism, he defines Utility as pleasure itself. “Every writer, from Epicurus to Bentham, who maintained the theory of utility, meant by it, not something to be contradistinguished from pleasure, but pleasure itself, together with the exemption from pain” (John Stuart Mill, 997). Another name for the theory of Utility is the Greatest Happiness Principle, which

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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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Utilitarianism is one of the best-known theory under the consequentialism, and its idea is the Greatest Happiness Principle(GHP). According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Utilitarian believe that the purpose of morality is to

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When Mill is first starting to talk about utilitarianism he starts by replying to the misconceptions about it. He says that most people think that utilitarianism is the opposition to pleasure, when in reality utilitarianism is defined as pleasure itself minus pain. Some people now refer to utilitarianism as the greatest happiness principle, “actions are

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Utilitarianism is a philosophical position used to determine how morally right an action is. According to utilitarianism, goodness is connected to usefulness in producing positive states, such as happiness, pleasure and convenience (Morris, 2011). Utilitarianism sees goodness and righteousness as tied to human flourishing, and so the most morally

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According to Vaughn (2017), “the principle of utility says that we should produce the most favorable balance of good over bad (or benefit over harm) for all concerned” (p.11). Utility is the underlying principle of utilitarianism, curated by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill in the 18th and 19th centuries. Bentham defines utility in terms of the quantity of pleasure versus pain produced, whereas Mill believes that pleasure is more qualitative, suggesting that it ranges on a scale of pleasure. Under Bentham’s definition, an ethical action is one that increases the overall happiness of the whole community.

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John Stuart Mill wrote What Utilitarianism Is to shift the focus from the quantity of happiness to the quality of happiness by introducing the lower and higher pleasures. Mill refers to lower pleasures as physical and higher pleasures as mental. Those who fall under the lower category are the type of people whose standards are low meaning that they are most likely to be satisfied. On the other hand, those who fall under the higher category are more like to have high standards making it hard to be satisfied easily. A higher pleasure can be something that had to be done with effort and meaning, while a lower pleasure could be something you need.

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Mill’s Utilitarianism. John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism have lots of agreements and applications in society. Jeremy Bentham (1789) was the great man who come out with utilitarianism. He claimed that pain and pressure are two sovereign masters to “point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. ”(Bentham, 1907, p.4)

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Now it is time to discuss Kant’s polar opposite in the field of philosophy and ethics, John Stuart Mill. Mill is the man who cultivated the principles of utilitarianism. In utilitarianism, this segment of philosophy tries to promote a lot of the things Kant would of consider to be absolute detriments. Utilitarianism tries to foster an overall happiness for the human race and by doing so Mill tries to focus extensively on the consequences of actions. Mill would often support the idea that happiness is the foundation to the idea of morality.

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The main principle of utilitarianism is happiness. People who follow this theory strive to fulfill the “ultimate good”. The “ultimate good” is defined as ultimate pleasure with out any pain. It is said that the pleasure can be of any quantity and any quality, but pleasures that are weighted more important are put at a higher level than others that are below it. This ethical theory also states that if society would fully embrace utilitarianism then people would naturally realize their moral standing in the

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In Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill defines his philosophy of utilitarianism as providing the greatest good or maximum pleasure, in the absence of pain, for the most people. The dilemma in this philosophy arises from the definition and pursuit of the greatest good. Hobbes said before in the Leviathan that there is no greatest good or Summum Bonum. In Plato’s Republic, Polemarchus’s definition of justice of doing good to friends and causing harm to enemies is rejected by Socrates because one cannot recognize good or evil, without having knowledge of the good. This is not true for Mill’s philosophy of utilitarianism.

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John Stuart Mill is most popularly known for his development of utilitarianism. In short, utilitarianism is the greatest good for the greatest amount of people. In his book about utilitarianism he writes about many things, one of those being liberty and how much should be giving to a society. He discusses if the people should be allowed to voice their own opinion. He describes how they could voice it in many ways.

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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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John Stuart Mill, at the very beginning of chapter 2 entitled “what is utilitarianism”. starts off by explaining to the readers what utility is, Utility is defined as pleasure itself, and the absence of pain. This leads us to another name for utility which is the greatest happiness principle. Mill claims that “actions are right in proportions as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” “By Happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain, by happiness, pain and the privation of pleasure”.

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