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Mill's Utilitarianism: Right Or Wrong?

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“He who thinks and thinks for himself, will always have a claim to thanks, it is no matter whether it be right or wrong, so as it be right or wrong, so as it be explicit. If it is right, it will serve as a guide to direct, if wrong, as a beacon to warn.” Jeremy Bentham believed that each individual should be able to speak their own opinions whether they were right or wrong as long as they didn’t harm anyone. Bentham was a British philosopher, who was believed to be the founder of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is based on the principle of having ethics towards the morally right action, which would benefit everyone’s life and well-being. Bentham’s utilitarianism influenced a particular son and father, James and John Mill. Mill senior, the …show more content…

Mill was concerned that individuals became to uniform and lost diversity within society. “Comparatively speaking they now read the same things, go to the same places, have their hopes and fear directed to the same objects, have the same rights and liberties, and the same means of asserting them.” Undoubtedly Mill’s saw society slipping into an assembly line, where everyone was similar and differences between two individuals was difficult to determine. “…they have no tastes or wishes strong enough to incline them to do anything unusual, and they consequently do not understand those who have, and class all such with the wild and interpret whom they are accustomed to look down upon.” According to Mill society was afraid to be different and step outside the box. Society was frightened when they saw differences or someone did something out of the ordinary. This individual was usually pegged as strange by others because everyone was used to be being enclosed in their bubbles. “That so few dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.” Mill urged society to take notice that they were missing out on all the uniqueness that life brings to each individual. “The whole object of Liberty is to argue that we must safeguard these goods, the ultimate goods of individual life, and that we must safeguard them by leaving people the room to experiment and inquire into them.” Mill stressed that individuals should be given the right to diversify and expand without conforming. To be brief, Mill did not want society to lose its diversity aspect because nobody would be happy in a uniform

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Puritan’s harsh beliefs represented the beginning of the Nineteenth Century in the newly colonized America. Their community ruled with an iron fist: unforgiving, pitiless, stern. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne expresses his disagreement with puritan priorities by revealing the hypocrisy widely practiced throughout their community. Hawthorne’s utilization of dim diction aids in the establishment of his scornful tone, while inclusion of symbols and intricate juxtaposition all serve to accentuate the Puritan’s duplicity. All these factors combine to develop a critical tone which rebukes puritan society.

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Reading Anthem and “The Soul of a Collectivist” can lead the reader to think that as a general public, many take individuality for granted. Even though in today’s culture many strongly support individuality, some still seem to not use their specific character to their potential. When Equality found the unmentionable word he mentions “I am. I think. I will.

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Caleb Stephens April 15, 2017 Introduction to Philosophy The goal of this paper is to demonstrate that Philippa Foot’s objection, raised to her own argument against utilitarianism, is correct. Her initial thesis is that benevolence, while the foundation of utilitarianism, is an internal end of morality, rather than the ultimate end of morality. The possible objection to this that there must be some overarching reason behind morality, which must imply a form of consequentialism. The response she offers is that there should be some other form of morality, which is a weak argument, as it does not provide an alternate conception of morality itself.

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In which we had to think carefully and cohesively about the characters and their backgrounds. Although Harper Lee proves the point that social prejudice was a highly regarded prejudice. Harper Lees’ novel helps us to become more aware of prejudicial situations that occurred in the

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Set in the southern United States during the height of the Great Depression, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, it is predictable that the time’s biases and prejudices play a role in the novel. However, the extent of this discrimination and strict expectations of conformity found in the novel is surprising. The book, which follows Scout, a young girl growing up in the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama, illustrates the different ways in which the members of the community treat others based on their races, conformity to societal standards, and upholding of the biases of the time.

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Mill mostly concentrates on utilitarianism and he said that people could not be selfish, they have to help each other. If they gain benefit from another person, they have to help and satisfy other person’s demands. On the other hand, Kant believes that people can help each other or satisfy each other’s demands, if these activities are derived from people’s good will. Also he strongly supported that people’s good will is not connected with the qualification. As a result, even if I support the Kant’s ideas, Mill has some true points.

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The pursuit of self-gratification and preservation forms only a minute part of this concept. Promotion of personal liberties and control in the various aspects of an individual’s life and situation has been a major part of American history since its very dawn. Individualism first appeared in America in the early 17th century with the arrival of the Pilgrims, a people facing religious persecution in their home country of England. While they did indeed band together as a group under a common cause, their fight for the ideals of personal liberty was an individualistic one.

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According to him, “New England’s experience was fundamentally different from that of every other area of the early modern British world (p. 165)”. However this “normative character” of southern society’s value and behavior is hard to accept. Furthermore, his evidence and research have been conducted entirely from the colonial period and can be deemed too narrow when looking at the broadness of “American culture”. He concludes that the southern colonies epitomized the American ideal of the pursuit of happiness by an independent person in a setting, that provided significant opportunity for success.

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This opened people up to new ideas, therefore affecting society as a whole. Mills’s upbringing changed the way he saw and understood different types of people. This is because he lived in two very different places, allowing him to see two totally different ways of living. He was born into a poor family in Texas. His Grandfather was a rancher, so his family focused

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Exactly, you would want your child to be saved as well. That 's one of the major flaws I see in utilitarianism. The rule of utilitarianism is that the decision that brings the most happiness should be made. I 'm not saying the disabled child wouldn 't bring any happiness, I 'm saying in this case the neighbor 's four kids would bring more happiness to society rather than the disabled one. The act of utilitarianism is a cruel system, but if one wants to incorporate into society then they should incorporate it completely rather than

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Kant focused on doing good wills, without using other people as a means of reward. I chose to analyze the death penalty, because it is a complex issue with many pros and cons. Bentham and Kant have views that are interesting to compare and contrast with any more moral problems. Jeremy Bentham’s main belief is to “seek pleasure for

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It was not until Mill’s late teens that he began to study Jeremy Bentham and his utilitarianism theory. “Reading Bentham satisfied Mill’s cravings for scientific precision and gave him a new way of looking at social intercourse” (Buchholz 97). Mill became so intrigued with Bentham that he decided to preach the Benthamite gospel in the Westminster Review, a publication started by his father and Jeremy Bentham. Mill’s views soon changed as he grew older. It is said that Mill had a mid-life crisis at the age of twenty because he took the Bentamite precision too far and actually forgot the ultimate goal of Utilitarianism in the first place, happiness.

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As a child, most learn that sharing is caring. Giving something that is abundant to the individual to those who could benefit from it is a concept as old as civilization. Naturally, as humans, we seek to be happy and more often than not, make others happy. Thus the utilitarian view was created, but what does that mean? What exactly is happiness and how does one go about spreading happiness it to others?

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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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