Mill's Utilitarianism

As a utilitarian, Mill relies heavily upon the overall happiness and wellbeing of the community, but there are other aspects of utilitarianism, such as liberty, which in a sense very closely goes hand in hand with happiness itself. To obtain happiness we must be free of restrictions which may limit our pursuit of the overall end goal. In Mill’s case, he stresses the importance of liberty, and uses freedom of speech as an example. Because we as individuals, and community members, require a sense of self to set ourselves apart from one another. He finds, that no matter the opinion, whether outlandish or reasonable, it has the possibility of becoming true, and without liberty we would not be able to come to this sort of conclusion because our rights would be restricted from us. Values Mill would most likely not support would most likely be something along the lines Kant followed, as a Utilitarian,

In, The Republic, there is a thin line which separates what Plato values, and what Socrates values. In this case, as the third book is written, it is almost a mirror opposite to what Mill purposes. Plato in a sense values harmony among society, something which hadn’t at the time in Athens been accomplished after the Peloponnesian war. Plato only wishes for his people not to be deceived by inaccurate depictions in literature and teachings, and to do this there must be a form of censorship emplaced. Although he is Athenian, he draws a lot of Spartan ideology in his writing, similar to Socrates who also valued there idea of uniformity, strict government regulations among their people to maintain order, and most importantly their lack of arts. Similar to the Spartan idea of regulation, Plato comes to the conclusion that censorship is required to protect the children of Athens so that they no longer fear death, or view the gods in an unholy manner because of poets, artists, and playwrights like Homer although his teachers were a vital part to Athenian history and