...Utilitarianism beliefs have been around for a long time but it wasn’t called utilitarianism until the philosopher Jeremy Bentham. John Stuart Mill was a philosopher born in 1806 and in 1861 wrote People haven’t’ agreed on what is right and what is wrong so the point is to come up with a universal systematic way to determine whether or not something is ethical The first principle of utility, as Mill describes, is “pleasure and freedom from pain are the only tings desirable as ends” The second principle is about the greatest happiness. “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to produce happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse.” He also describes happiness as pleasure with the absence of pain and unhappiness as pain with the absence of pleasure -First Premise- Constantly chasing pleasure brings about bad things (addictions, disease, an unhealthy life, loss of friends due to selfishness. You become a slave to your pleasure) The first thing that I believe is wrong with this theory is that a person should not be constantly chasing pleasure -Second Premise- mob rule...
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...In the chapters from Mill’s book, Utilitarianism, he writes about how people will be held accountable if they don't follow Utilitarianism and also what people are really looking for as an “ultimate ends”. One thought that the writes about is happiness as a way to an end. But what exactly is happiness and how do we measure it? We can’t scientifically measure happiness and it means different things to different people, but everybody has felt a sense of happiness at one point in their lives. I agree with Mills in that happiness can be broken down into parts and looked at from these different angles. Mills looks at happiness in a couple different ways that I found to be intriguing. One word he uses is “desire”. I agree that desire is a part...
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...John Stuart Mill holds that actions can only be judged as morally good based on the consequences it will have on the greater majority. That is, rather than maximize individual benefits in order to be considered morally good, actions of a utilitarian are only morally good if they maximize benefits for the greatest number. Benefits are defined as happiness minus pain. Individual rights may not count if they hinder the ability to maximize good for the majority. There is therefore a lack of full self-ownership of the benefits derived or arising from such actions. Individuals cannot also transfer the rights and benefits. Promotion of one’s own happiness and welfare and thus individual benefits ceases. Mill’s Greatest Happiness Principle therefore...
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...Douglas L. Kaye LS312: Ethics and the Legal Environment Unit 2 Prof. Craig July 16th, 2013 John Stuart Mill developed a systematic statement of utilitarian ethical theory, which is another ethical theory based on the consequences of actions. The application of this theory involves performing the action that produces the best results for the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism can be further reduced into two sub-categories, act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. Followers of act utilitarianism think that in each ethical situation, an individual should perform the action that produces the best results for the majority of people. Rule utilitarianism requires people to construct and follow an established set of rules that should guarantee the best possible outcome for the majority of the people. Critics of both utilitarianism positions argue that it is extremely difficult to determine future consequences for other people. Another problem of utilitarianism is cost benefit analysis. Essentially, in the quest to please the majority, at what point do the minority’s interest become expendable? Assigning value to individuals in this manner, and using them as a means to an end may not always be considered moral behavior in some situations or circumstances (Kemerling, 2011). In the Palm Beach Post this week was a news article titled, "Royal Palm Beach woman charged with opening fake account, stealing $6,000 from bank" which was about a 50-year-old woman, Anna Papa...
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...definition in many different ways. Trying to establish the morality of an action is even trickier than the idea of morality itself. One philosopher will have one belief and another will have a completely different view and an outside person could interpret each of those philosophies in a different way. In the eyes of a utilitarian, such as John Stuart Mills, it would be considered morally justifiable to expend resources on luxuries when those same resources could provide others with the necessities of life. John Stuart Mill was historically known for utilitarianism. This means that he believed the morality of an action is determined by their consequences and uses the principle of utility to evaluate those said consequences. The principle of utility states that actions are right insofar as they promote happiness and wrong insofar as they produce the reverse of happiness. The utilitarianism that Mill is known for is broken into two separate forms. The first is act-utilitarianism; this view says that the particular consequences of each individual action is evaluated by reference to the principle of utility. The second is rule-utilitarianism; this view says that rules are established by reference to the principle of utility and then individual acts are evaluated by reference to the rules. On top of...
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...The philosopher that I have chosen is John Stuart Mill. John Stuart Mill was born on 20th May 1806 in London, to the British economist, historian and philosopher, James Mill and Harriet Burrow. Mill was a philosopher, political and economic theorist, naturalist, feminist, civil servant, scholar and an author. He was well-known as one of the most influential English philosopher of the nineteenth century. He was the eldest son and was educated by his strict father. Mill’s father was a supporter of Jeremy Bentham’s philosophy of utilitarianism and aimed to make his son a genius so that he would carry of Bentham's theory after both his and Bentham’s death. Therefore Mill’s father kept him very sheltered, away from children of his age and taught...
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...Utilitarianism Utilitarianism was founded by Jeremy Bentham and was adopted by John Stuart Mill, whose father was an associate of Jeremy Bentham. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes the overall happiness or pleasure for all the people involved, by whatever means necessary. The moral worth of an action is determined only by its resulting outcome; therefore utilitarianism is only concerned with consequences and not with intentions of an action. Both philosophers believed that a morally good action will bring the greatest pleasure or happiness, and an immoral action will be the one that produces more pain. Therefore, everything we do and ought to do is driven by the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain. The difference between the two philosophers was that Bentham believed that only the quantity of pleasure matters, whereas Mills argues that the quality of the pleasure matters more. Both, Mill and Bentham had very similar view on Utilitarianism, but yet Mill’s was distinguished from Bentham’s. Bentham was more concerned with the amount of pleasure that is generated from an action. He did not consider that some pleasures are higher and some lower. Because of that he was able to quantify the amount of pleasure or pain according to a single set of criteria. On the other hand, Mill believed that the quality of the pleasure matters more and that all pleasures cannot be so simply quantified. The following...
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...moral questions have enormous weight to them. And as human beings, we have no choice but to face them every day. It is part of the essence of what it is to be a human. There is no way out of it, no matter how much someone tries to ignore these issues, these choices must be made, and their consequences faced. Others have realized the importance of such questions and have devoted much time and writing to address them. All the way back to Plato and Aristotle, philosophers have been deeply concerned with such issues. Each has offered his own view of right and wrong and how to go about acting in the right way. Those in the field of ethics have spent much time pondering these questions. Two such philosophers were Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Each of these philosophers expounded and endorsed the principle of utility. For utilitarian’s, pleasure and pain are the two driving forces. “Nature has place mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure” (Bentham 367). For Bentham the principle of utility was the principle for ethical questions. The principle can be simply stated as providing the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. This means that Bentham is an Ethical Hedonist; the right thing to...
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...Philosopher Research Paper John Stuart Mill Prepared for Professor Sandra Gates Kaplan University Prepared by Lea Geckler November 1, 2011 INTRODUCTION This report discusses the history, theories, proof and weaknesses of John Stuart Mill ideals on Utilitarianism. Mill believes that if people participate in ethical actions it will create pleasure in life, and that is what most people want in life is pleasure not pain. Utilitarian’s believe the only things worth having are pleasurable experiences. Unfortunately not all experiences are pleasurable and they cause pain. Utilitarian’s define good and evil in terms of ethical and non-ethical consequences of pleasure and pain. (Brooks & Dunn, Chapter 3 pg.150) Simply stated do the ethical action and be rewarded with pleasure or do the unethical actions and be rewarded with pain, which can be physical or mental. Mill explains that pleasure and pain can be qualitative and quantitative for example; if you have a project and it time consuming, stressful and mentally exhausting this is the quantitative aspect but getting recognition from your manager or top management on a job well done is the qualitative aspect and that is the pleasure. HISTORYOF JOHN STUART MILL Mill was educated by his father and Jeremy Bentham, the founder of Utilitarianism in modern ethical thought (Encyclopedia of Ethics). He learned Greek at the age of three, Latin by the age of 8, a competent logician by the age of 12 and by age 16...
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...Name Professor Course Date Why does Mills think that Utilitarianism provides the foundation for Justice and why does Rawls reject it? Introduction The concept of utilitarianism is one that has engulfed the philosophical arena with an obscene number of arguments that support and/or criticize it. Generally, utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics that defines an action as one that ensures maximum utility. Other schools of thought would like to put it as the concept of “maximizing happiness while reducing suffering” (Mills 3).In as much as utilitarianism has continued to receive applause from people and the political scene, other divergent scholars has come up with other theories that seek to compromise the philosophies under which the concept of utilitarianism operates. As a result, utilitarianism has become subject to contradictions from other theories in the field of ethics. The thinking class in other fields of utilitarianism characterizes in as a quantitative yet reductionist approach to ethics (Mills 3). Over time, the concept of utilitarianism has received ideological threats from; deontological ethics which does not assign moral worth to an action based on its consequences, virtue ethics that solely deals with action and habits that results to happiness, pragmatic ethics and other forms of ethics that backs the idea of consequentialism. In a nut shell, the concept of utilitarianism as defined by political philosophers and in relation to justice is becoming...
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...Catherine Chamberlain Grizli777 John stuart mill Catherine Chamberlain Grizli777 John stuart mill John Stuart Mill was born in London in 1806. In 1873 Mill wrote an autobiography gave great examples about his life and the education he had received. Mill was given this education by his father with the assistance of Jeremy Bentham and Francis Place (Mautner, 2014). Mill had learned to speak Greek by the age of three and then Latin a little later on. Mill was a competent logician by the age of twelve. At age sixteen he had already became a well-trained economist. Mill then suffered a nervous breakdown at the age of twenty and used this nervous breakdown to come to the realization he needed more in life than just devotion to the public good and an analytically sharp intellect (Mautner, 2014). As he had grown up a utilitarian, Mill now listened to Wordsworth, Goethe, and Coleridge to help cultivate his aesthetic sensibilities (Mautner, 2014). Mill wanted the British public to understand that there was a need for a scientific approach to understand the political, economic, and social change that was happening. In Mill’s autobiography he claims he introduced the word “utilitarian” to the English language when he was only sixteen. Mill had come into contact with the idea of utilitarian thought early on in life. In Mills writing of Utilitarianism (1861) he tries to justify the utilitarian principle as the foundation for morals (Schefczyk, 2014). The utilitarian...
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...Utilitarianism: * Utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes utility, usually defined as maximizing happiness and reducing suffering. * The Utilitarian tradition is often summarised as “the greatest good for the greatest number” * “The Classical Utilitarians, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, identified the good with pleasure”. Therefore pleasure is the ultimate goal that will lead to an ethical society, according to the Utilitarian approach. John Stuart Mill: * was an English philosopher, political economist and civil servant. * He has been called "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century Theory of liberty: * Mill states that it is acceptable for someone to harm himself as long as he is not harming others. * On Liberty involves an impassioned defense of free speech * The individual ought to be free to do as he wishes unless he harms others. * Individuals are rational enough to make decisions about their good being and choose any religion they want to. * Government should interfere when it is for the protection of society. * Freedom of speech Harm principle: * The harm principle holds that the actions of individuals should only be limited to prevent harm to other individuals. * John Stuart Mill articulated this principle in On Liberty, where he argued that, "The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised...
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...Utilitarianism Essay Shirnel Charles Grand Canyon University: PHI-305 Ethical Thinking in Liberal Arts Instructor John Wise September 21, 2014 The Story of Ethics states that the point of the Utilitarian theory is to conceptualize exactly what is good life by “bringing about consequences of a certain sort that is the greatest happiness for the greatest number” (The Story of Ethics). The Story of Ethics also states that the Utilitarian principle of greatest happiness for the greatest number was first popularized by Jeremy Bentham who according to the Lecture Note “version of utilitarianism is known as quantitative utilitarianism” (Lecture Note). According to The Story of Ethics Bentham states that the principle of utility recognizes right and wrong and the causes and effects from right and wrong. These effects can lead to the nature of mankind being either in pain or pleasure and “Bentham assumes that one can only act according to their aversion to pain or desire for pleasure” (The Story of Ethics). The understanding that I have gained from Bentham’s theory is that good and bad is judged by pleasure and pain that is the greater the pleasure the greater the good and the greater the pain the greater the bad. Bentham’s theory is the ethical position that influenced both John Stuart Mill and his father James Mill. According to an article in the Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia “the central aim of John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism is to defend the view that those...
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...follower of utilitarianism would respond to issue raised by euthanasia. Classical Utilitarianism is teleological, and it says that the outcome of an action determines whether the action is right or wrong. The basic principle of utilitarianism is to produce the greatest good for the greatest number. When regarding euthanasia, the question of what counts as a good consequence is questioned. John Stuart Mill says that good consequences are simply happiness, happiness is pleasure and freedom from pain, this involves physical, mental and psychological pain. Mill placed a high value on this individual freedom, saying that one should have sovereignty over the things that didn’t affect other people, whether or not it led to the best outcome for that individual. He also says that good consequences depend on the quality of pleasure as well as quantity. This higher happiness stresses self-development and develops peoples rational nature. When discussing types of euthanasia, for instance voluntary euthanasia, a follower of Mills utilitarianism may apply his notion of victimless crime, as there is no crime since the patient wishes to die. However although a patient has had their wish and the doctor is simply carrying it out, there are still effects on society and on the doctor-patient relationship, thus making society itself the victim as human life loses its value. Singer agrees that we should look beyond merely pleasure, to people’s interests. This sort of ‘welfare’ utilitarianism would ask...
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...Contextual Analysis The concept of Utilitarianism by Mill is that an action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it tends to produce the reverse of happiness- not just the happiness of the performer of the action but also that of everyone affected by it. The Rainbow Fish relates to a core notion of basic utilitarianism, the happiness of the group vs. the happiness of the individual. The basic of utilitarian tenets of "The greatest good for the greatest number" and "Maximizing happiness across the population" are easily apparent when reflecting on Rainbow Fish's decision and the consequences (Mill). In the Rainbow Fish's case, theoretically, he was going to be a little less happy if he lost his scales, but as a result his friends will become much happier. In practice, though, giving everyone a scale actually made him even happier. Mill’s theory of maximizing happiness across the population in Utilitarianism explains why Rainbow Fish becomes happier when he shares his scales with the other fish and his perspective of selfishness explains why Rainbow Fish is unhappy at first. In the book, The Rainbow Fish, there is one of the most beautiful fish in the ocean. Unlike all of the other fish, Rainbow Fish had shimmering, colorful scales. He is asked to share one of his shining scales with a little blue fish, and to which he refuses. All the other fish in the sea leave him alone, and he wondered why. He goes to the wise octopus for advice, and she tells him to give...
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