Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism
In chapter five of Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill attempts to correlate the human sentiments of justice with the principles of his Utilitarian doctrine. His task is to identify whether justice exists by itself or is derived by other sentiments. In so doing, he must also identify the range of our conceptions of justice to determine whether his theory can suitably address the demands of moral thinking. Mill does not describe every variety of the human notion of justice -- he could not have. The point of this exercise has been to bring into view a more complete picture of justice, and to demonstrate that a good deal of it may be served on the basis of utility. There are circumstances where the bonds of the doctrine as a whole are stretched, and that is to be expected, as far as moral theories are concerned.
In many cases, choosing right action can be simplified by referring to the events and outcomes in human history. Human affairs have long required moral thinking and to ensure stability within our societies, certain standards of morally-correct behavior have emerged. Mill outlines these common elements of justice beginning with the moral impositions of our societies, namely, laws. A law is a system of rules which protect certain personal liberties or property and are enforced through a set of institutions. A law is usually intended to protect a person's or peoples moral right, though the stipulations of a law may not always receive unanimous agreement. Mill finds justice in conformity to laws (and in turn to the protected peoples' right), yet also affirms the existence of unjust laws, or rights which a person or people are not rightly entitled to. In the case of an unjust law, every means should be exercised to obey the mandate of the law unless to do so would cause the violation of a person's right. Simultaneously, every effort should be made to enact principled change in an unjust law toward the greater utility. In a less formal view of justice, Mill...