When he [Kant] begins to deduce from this precept [i.e. CI] any of the actual duties of morality, he fails, almost grotesquely, to show that there would be any contradiction, any logical (not to say physical) impossibility, in the adoption by all rational beings of the most outrageously immoral rules of conduct. All he shows is that the consequences of their universal adoption would be such as no one would choose to incur. Here Mill considers of consequences in moral action, as we will see, Mill’s consequentialism rather than Utilitarianism is the direct charge made to Kant, these two notions are not same, the utiitlirms principle is seek happiness and avoid pain, precisely moral action would be conducted on maximizing happiness and minimizing…
While observing Bernard Williams experiment about Jim, we are faced with a question of what should Jim do regarding the offer he was presented with? The offer being, Jim has the “privilege” of killing one of the twenty conquered Indians and freeing the rest or her can do nothing and the captain kills them all. In comparing J.S Mills’ philosophical theory utilitarianism and Immanuel Kant’s philosophical theory deontology, we will pay special attention how the two derive from different aspects of an ethical approach and how the outcome can sometimes influence the decisions.…
Question #1: In order to effectively answer this problem I will first provide a brief definition of the positive thesis brought forth by the moral theory of Utilitarianism. As stated by Mill in his article “In Defense of Utilitarianism”, “an act is right if and only if it brings about the greatest total amount of happiness out of all the actions available to the agent, whereby happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain”. (Mill 1990, 172). Essentially, Mill stated in his article that Utilitarianism defines a morally correct action to be one that produces the maximum amount of utility or pleasure within an act.…
In John Stuart Mill’s influential book “Utilitarianism”, Mill introduces the belief that moral action is based upon the concept of utility, or how he explains it, the greatest happiness principle. It is this greatest happiness principle that defines Utilitarianism as the notion that the best moral actions are those that promote the most amount of human happiness. Actions that would be regarded as the least favorable are those that promote the opposite, unhappiness. The concept of Utilitarianism and that of Consequentialism are similar as both judge the moral value of an action dependent on its consequences, however each claim leads to different conclusions.…
What is Utilitarianism? Utilitarianism is a philosophical concept that holds an action to be held right if it tends to promote happiness for the greatest number of people. Utilitarian’s define the morally right actions as those actions that maximize happiness and minimize misery. Many believe that utilitarianism is an unrealistic theory. Arguments and responses to utilitarianism being too demanding have been made John Stuart Mill and Peter Singer.…
The Argument of Utilitarianism In “Utilitarianism” John Stuart Mill presents the case of Utilitarianism as a moral theory. Moral theories are structured as a set of statements used to predict a set of factors or concept. Moral theories are thought to be universal and tell which action is the right one in any given situation. Utilitarianism is one the most influential and best known moral theories, often called “The Greatest Happiness Principles”.…
In 1848, German philosopher Karl Marx published The Communist Manifesto, a political pamphlet which went on to be recognized as one of the world’s most influential political manuscripts. Indeed, The Communist Manifesto was an attempt at explaining the underlying goals of communism, an ideology that contrasts heavily with the utilitarian views of English philosopher John Stuart Mill, who in 1859, published On Liberty, an application of utilitarianism to society and state. Evidently, Marx’s and Mill’s views leaned towards different ends of the political spectrum, although their opposing viewpoints did hold underlying similarities. To that effect, the two thinkers’ contrasting worldviews will be studied through an analysis of their outlooks on…
Even if the circumstances of the genesis of this work gesture to an occasional piece with a popular goal, on closer examination Utilitarianism turns out to be a carefully conceived work, rich in thought. One must not forget that since his first reading of Bentham in the winter of 1821-22, the time to which Mill dates his conversion to utilitarianism, forty years had passed. Taken this way, Utilitarianism was anything but a philosophical accessory, and instead the programmatic text of a thinker who for decades had understood himself as a utilitarian and who was profoundly familiar with popular objections to the principle of utility in moral theory. Almost ten years earlier (1852) Mill had defended utilitarianism against the…
Essentially, Mill's thought that critics had overlooked the meaning behind pleasure and the distinguishing elements between the pleasures of human beings and animals. "Human beings have faculties more elevated than the animal appetites, and when once made conscious of them, do not regard anything as happiness which does not include their gratification the pleasures of the intellect, of the feelings and imagination, and of the moral sentiments, a much higher value as pleasures than to those of mere sensation" (from Module 11 J.S Mill Excerpt). In this sense, human pleasures are more superior than pleasures of animals and once faculties of intellect and feelings are set into motion, happiness gradually takes place. Mills also states that it is likely that some pleasure is more valuable than the other but the consequences of one's action is what will help us as individuals distinguish higher and lower…
There are also many conflicting situations that people face since their judgments of pleasure are different. This disprove Mill’s argument that pleasure’s quality is one of the main part of moral actions. His logic of high quality pleasure is hard to prove since everyone’s happiness is different. A result might have different meanings to varied people, so it is hard to find the sum of happiness. Morality is balanced to people’s true happiness, but not based on the sum of…
The recent events below have led to a series of protests over the past year but recently in the media the public has been advocating for the rights of African Americans in America based off of the neglect of the justice system for these young black men. These situations were all against young black males that had absolutely no reason to be murdered as a means to a solution. As these three situations only stand as representations of the many black male to be victimized by the police system in America it also shows us that although we have made strides in race relations and equality we still have a very long and tiring journey to go to be fully accepted by our fellow counterpart. Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by a Chicago…
Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are considered founders of Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory where moral rightness is measured by what brings the most happiness to the most people. Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism because it is based on whether an action is morally justified by its consequences. Bentham and Mill differ in that Bentham reasoned that pleasure was measurable using hedons, units of pleasure, where actions with the highest score were the best action.…
Through spring-boarding off opponent’s arguments, Mill defines the utilitarian vocabulary and fortifies his theory of morality. Mill begins by first defining “utility” in a way that holds the word neutral from belief that it is opposed to or based solely on pleasure. He defines utility as “not something to be contradistinguished from pleasure, but pleasure itself, together with…
In “Utilitarianism,” John Stuart Mill argues that consequences of an action are all that really matter. Defining utilitarianism at its core, is a theory holding that the moral rightness and/or wrongness of an action depends entirely on the consequences of that action. Thereby agreeing that an action or decision is considered good if it generates happiness and bad if it generates the reverse. In his ethical approach, Mill suggests that the measure of success and happiness depends on how many people and how much happiness was developed as a result of that action, or the “greatest happiness principle.” This principle, Mill declares, “holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the…
Mill bases his theory in human psychology, saying that desire is universal regardless of one’s religious convictions. He also recognizes that human pleasures differ in quality, not just quantity (Clark & Poortenga, 2003). Mill believed that human higher desires are those of reason and intellect while the lower desires are based on our immediate and biological needs and wants. Mill found that it is impossible to quantify lower desires because they are innate and natural. Some strengths of qualitative utilitarianism are that it does take into account natural human desires and gives them weight in order to help make an ethical decision (Wilkens, 2011).…