Mill Utilitarianism John Stuart Mill is a 19th century English philosopher who is still loved by western nations due to his philosophy of Utilitarianism which has been utilized to morally justify the horribly destructive decisions the US has ever made. Mill continued the works of his mentor Jeremy Bentham, also an Englishman, who first developed Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is a Consequentialist philosophy that is to say, the ends justify the means. Morality is applied to decisions based on the impact of them not necessarily the action that was taken. Bentham used math to determine some things morality. He utilized the happiness calculus that gave every impact a positive or negative value. The morality of the decision is based upon …show more content…
Bentham used the happiness calculus to determine the greatest good in any given situation. Mill however that Bentham’s “greatest good” theory was too elementary. He modified to “greatest good” to be “the greatest good for the greatest number of people”. He believed that the greatest good might not necessarily be for the most people but for who benefited most from a decision. The degree of the benefit may be a quarter of the worth for three people than the opposing one. In that situation the greatest good for the greatest number of people was for the one over the other three. Unlike most utilitarianists who think that pleasure is not acceptable and is only "ethical for swine", Mill argues that pleasure is separated into two categories known as higher pleasures and lower pleasures. Mills theory on pleasure is based on that people prefer higher pleasures rather than lower pleasures. Higher pleasures are more intellectual pleasures and lower pleasures are more sensual or animalistic. For example, learning to speak a different language can be considered a higher pleasure and as a result, a more acceptable pleasure. However, other lower pleasures like food, sleep, sex, drink etc. would be considered