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John Stuart Mills Utilitarianism

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Most of hi John Stuart Mill’s work and theories reflect his naturalist, and Unitarian ideology on this knowledge being based off experience. To summarize utilitarianism it is an ethical theory that place the decision of right and wrong on the outcome of the action. They why how actions are justified that they are moral or not are based on the comparison those two things and takes into account the interest of not only your own but also those around you. Mills would say as a utilitarian that the wrongness or rightness of an action is justified by the end result; because, as utilitarian ethics is guided by the total greatest happiness for the greatest amount of people. What is so fascinating about utilitarianism is that it gives an ignorant blunder …show more content…

There are steps to decide whether or not these values are important to oneself and if they are valued or not. Mills argued that only happiness was intrinsically valuable and misery was bad. However, “choosing amongst acts that benefit people, we must benefit the greatest number of people” (Shafer, 122). What is confusing about his theory is that you may think that satisfying the majority is what is in your best interest for that particular actions when in reality it this the minority that would receive the most happiness in comparison to the larger group. Secondly it is difficult to justify whether or not to decision between two actions. The reason being even though one action brings you more happiness than the second does not mean that we should automatically do the first action. Mills wants to say that the outcome is never certain and that the first action could bring more misery than the second, although you would not actually know without experiencing both …show more content…

Shafer-Landau explains the steps as “add up all of the benefits it produces, add up all pf the harm it causes, determine the balance, and then see whether the balance is greater than that of any other available” (Shafer-Landau, 138). As a whole utilitarianism allows you to precisely question the pros and cons of any given action. The morality of an action is based on the outcome, because initially any act can be seen as just. The reason being is the individual has their own motive for happiness when performing this task and would not be seen as unjust until the outcome of the act is evaluated. Ethical utilitarianism claims that we socialize to tell the truth, protect the weak, and keep our

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