John Stuart Mill's Argument Essay

John Stuart Mill was a philosopher and political economist. He was most influential when it came to liberalism. He is known to be one of the most important British philosophers of the nineteenth century and was taught by his father. He was very intelligent, speaking three different languages and became director of a company at around eighteen years old. His most famous works are A System of Logic, Utilitarianism, On Liberty, and The Subjection of Women. In his essay called Utilitarianism, he supports the value as moral. Mill defines utilitarianism as a principle that “holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” He says that happiness is an intended

A person, or pig in this case, that is satisfied may think they have a better life because they don't know what it is like to be a higher being. It is better to be a higher being, or Socrates in the comparison, and be dissatisfied because they can compare and know they still have it better than someone who is a lower being. It is better to be a higher being because you are more intelligent and will know the pros and cons leading to you being able to make the most appropriate decision when it comes to satisfaction. He is saying that intelligence is also what leads to satisfaction. Sometimes, people choose lower pleasures. In the textbook, there was an example of how some men will choose the more sensual pleasure over their health knowing that their health is the higher pleasure. Mills believes that it is impossible for people to actually choose the lower pleasure just because. He states that he believes that “before they devote themselves exclusively to the one, they have already become incapable of the other.” This means that he believes that someone chose a lower pleasure because they are incapable or blocked off from the higher pleasure. No one choose the lower pleasure voluntarily. If the higher pleasure were still available, that would be chosen without a doubt. There is also only one way for utilitarianism to achieve its end. “Therefore, could only achieve its end by the general cultivation of nobleness of character, even if each individual were only benefited by the nobleness of others.” So, to achieve its end, utilitarianism must be as far away from pain as possible and and rich in enjoyments in both quality and quantity. Some even argue that Utilitarianism sets the standards too high for humanity because “it is exacting too much to require that people shall always act from the inducement of promoting the general interests of