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The Greatest Happiness Principle In John Stuart Mill's Philosophy

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Utilitarianism is the theory that justifies actions as right to the extent that they produce utility. Utility itself can then be categorized as any benefit that improves or increases a person’s well-being. Therefore, utilitarianism implies telling the teacher the truth about the situation is the right choice. I will also argue that utilitarianism provides the appropriate moral perspective to take. The principle of utility states that we should perform actions that are likely to produce the most utility. John Stuart Mill describes ‘utility’ as pleasure in the absence of pain (Mill,1). Therefore, the choice to be made should ultimately derive more pleasure than pain. The most plausible application of the greatest happiness principle in the case is that a person should tell the teacher what was truly going on with the other student. Essentially, this decision evaluates more than just the increase of wellbeing, but also the moral worth of actions (Common Ethics Handout, 1). The teacher can assist your friend in need and act …show more content…

Thus being said, telling the teacher would not only be the right choice to make for your friend, but it would also benefit you morally, resulting in both well-beings to increase. In this situation, the case proves to be practical and realistic to choose to talk to the teacher. Whereas if you choose not to disclose anything to your teacher, your friend could still be wrestling with their difficult situation at home, overwhelming stress, and now possibly a low grade due to lack of communal work and participation. The fact of the matter is, if one chooses to do nothing, nothing will change. Consequently, standing up to mortality and ethical values one should say something and make a

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Staveren (2007), describes Utilitarian Ethics as a pathways that allows individual agents to have moral preferences and to act in the interest of others, but only when the action toward others generates a net utility gain for the individuals (p 22), therefore the actions of Derrick, the Principal of Pierre Trudeau High, and the VW University will be examined under a Utilitarian lens. Derrick as a teacher, regardless of student-rank, should have maintained professional boundaries with his students and avoided giving single students preferential treatment despite his best intentions. Following the principles of Utilitarian ethics Derrick might have been more inclined to “sacrifice” the one students, in this case Max, and focus his attention on

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Whether it is at the dinner table or in my family’s group text message, the conversation about my brother’s custody battle with my mother’s side of the family seems to remain a bitter topic, especially when discussing my role in it. When my father physically harmed my brother to the extent to which he had to go to the emergency room, the custody trial over my brother and me began. After several sources provided the judge with accusations against my father, I was the final source that needed to assert or deny my father’s abuse; with heavy consideration, I decided to lie to the judge by denying my father’s abuse. Under the principle of utilitarianism, philosophers would infer that lying is permissible if the consequences of doing so are good.

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The object of this essay is to show a simple evaluation of john Stuart mill principle “an action is right that it does not cause harm to another person” I will be exercising both evaluations and explaining why the positive side outweighs the negative side of the principle, in a society that it’s people are emancipated to control their own opinions. Mill Stuart in his autobiography of 1873 he narrates liberty as a philosophic chronicle of indivisible accuracy. (Mill (1989.edn).p.189) rather than speaking of rights, many claim a ‘right’ not to be harmed ,mill says that only a harm or risk to harm is enough vindication for using power above someone else. John Stuart moreover he adequate his principle by reckoning that it is not good to use power

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The purpose of this essay is to pick apart Mill’s essay and to give my own personal opinion about happiness. Stuart believed that you could achieve happiness by helping others achieve happiness and by finding things that you enjoy in life. I believe the key to happiness is helping other people achieve their happiness, do things that you enjoy doing, and looking at things in the brightest way possible. I honestly believe that everyone wakes up in the morning wanting to be happy, I have never seen a person who wakes up saying, “ I want to have an absolutely miserable day today”. It is human nature to strive for happiness and do things that you enjoy doing.

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Utilitarianism would look at this situation as a wrongful action. According to teleological created by John Stuart Mill the action that happens is based of the good that comes from said action. In this case Payne’s action while arresting Ms. Wobbles would go against teleological due to being negative in nature and doing more harm then good for either parties involved. According to Jeremy Bentham the goodness of the action is based on the consequences of the action that is made. I believe that Payne does deserve to be terminated from the department and rightfully tried in court for all the departmental policies that were broke during the arrest of Ms. Wobbles.

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In the book “Justice: What’s the right thing to do?” the author, Michael J. Sandel, reveals six primary ethical approaches, which can be utilized to answer the fundamental question of the book, “ What’s the right thing to do?” These six approaches consist of utilitarianism, libertarianism, Locke, Kant liberal egalitarian and Aristotle. Utilitarianism consists of the principle of utility, which expresses the idea that moral actions are composed of those, which deliver the greatest amount of joy or happiness to the most amount of people.

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Kant believed that we shouldn 't depend on the consequences but more on whether or not we have fulfilled our duty. Philosopher John Stewart Mill believed that we determine "right from wrong by focusing on outcomes" (Ethics Unwrapped). With this theory, utilitarians will do what they need to do to get the outcome that they desire. This may result in lying, cheating or stealing. Is this an approach that the committee may use to get the student what she wants?

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People these days try looking for happiness but they do not know the more you try looking for it the harder it will be to find. Here it is when you have a special day coming up you can not wait for it. Well when the day comes up it did not go as planed. That is because we over think it if we were just to let the day come and just enjoy then it would be better. I agree with John Mills argument “we should not search for happiness but let happiness come to us.”

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Creating the greatest amount of happiness means making sure the rights, freedom and security of everyone in a state are protected. I believe this principle will not assist in

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Utilitarianism is part of consequentialist theories which assess moral right and wrong in terms of the consequences of the actions. Utilitarianism places great importance on actions that produce or increase pleasure and reduce pain. In other words, utilitarianism advocates for happiness producing consequences. Ethical issues in marketing to children Adverts with exaggerated claims to mislead children Some marketers purposefully overstate the qualities or features of a particular product or service to mislead the children in believing that the product or service is exactly the way it has been advertised.

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We sometimes but not always experience pleasure when we do the right thing . We experience pain when these functions are left unfulfilled. In other word Utility is a. Mill says that people desire virtue , which is distinguished from happiness, However , Mill states that people love virtue because it is part of happiness. Mill also believed that if you can't make everyone happy, make the most people happy. The motivation for making a decision this way is that it's not always possible to account for all ethical or moral drawbacks to a decision so you have to make a compromise.

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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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Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that is more interested in consequences than intent. An act is considered right if it’s good outcomes is more than the bad outcomes. People are expected to act in a way that will result in the greatest possible amount of well-being. Utilitarianism became a well-defined ethical theory during the eighteenth century. Utilitarianism can be described as a theory of ethics because it tells good or bad and also right or wrong.

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