John Stuart Mill was a philosopher who believed in the principle of utility. Utility, as used in the text, is the principle that states morality comes from happiness and pleasure. Also known as the greatest happiness principle, utility seeks to find the greatest happiness for the greatest amount of people. Although some philosophers might not agree with Mill, he believed that progression and experience plays a huge role in morality. To begin with, lets discuss the basic model for Mill. We are all born into this world with some innate ideas, however morality is not one of them. Morality, for Mill, is based on experience and progresses through out the life span. What was moral in the past might not be considered moral today and vice versa. As a child we have lower pleasures. Pleasures that include things like ice cream and candy, however as we grow older and experience new things as well as become educated we are able to have a more abstract style of thinking and therefore we are able to formulate higher pleasures. Some examples of these higher pleasures would include things such as knowledge and happiness for others or a sense of community. This later becomes the difference between animalistic pleasures and human pleasures, which proves that we have different forms of desires, which are learned, through our upbringing. Mill’s model is absolutely based on progress, and this is proven through Mill’s book Utilitarianism. Mill argues that without experience we are not able to decide what will bring us happiness or absence of pain. We have to experience different pleasures in order to decide what we like better and what pleasures we hold higher than others. “It is indisputable that the being whose capacities of enjoyment are low, has the greatest chance of having them fully satisfied... But he can learn to bear its imperfections, if they are at all bearable” (Mill, 8). In this quote Mill argues that although some may have higher desires than others, humans have the capability to learn to bear the imperfections, which directly plays a role in experience. The key word being “learn”, humans are able to change their ideas of what makes them happy and this would add to Mill’s argument that morality is not innate. One more argument that Mill makes, in defense to experience being a vital factor in morality, is that if morality was based on innate ideas then justice would not be ambiguous and we would not have disagreements between what is just and unjust.
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Mill explains this in the following quote, “if justice be totally independent of utility, and be a standard per se, which the mind can recognize by simple introspection of itself; it is hard to understand why that internal oracle is so ambiguous, and why so many things appear either just or unjust, according to the light in which they are regarded” (Mill, 47). Furthermore, in a case in which morality was not based on experience, we all would be born with innate ideas that tell us what is just and unjust, but in fact justice is based on experience and we must learn justice throughout the lifespan. Additionally, social morality is also dependent on progress and experience. “This firm foundation is that of the social feelings of mankind; the desire to be in unity with our fellow creatures, which is already a powerful principle in human nature, and happily one of those which tend to become stronger, even without express inculcation, from the influences of advancing civilization” (Mill, 27). The human’s ability to think abstractly to form a sense of community is another example of how morality is based on progress for Mill. As stated in the quote above, humankind’s nature is compliant to its society and as through time society advances the human can also adjust to the new social morals. Again, what was moral in the past might not be considered moral in the present or future and that is why progress is something that definitely should be taken into consideration in order to be moral. Furthermore, those that are against the idea of utilitarianism are concerned with the objection that there is no time previous to action that calculates the effects of happiness. However Mill responds to this with “the answer to
Mill explains this in the following quote, “if justice be totally independent of utility, and be a standard per se, which the mind can recognize by simple introspection of itself; it is hard to understand why that internal oracle is so ambiguous, and why so many things appear either just or unjust, according to the light in which they are regarded” (Mill, 47). Furthermore, in a case in which morality was not based on experience, we all would be born with innate ideas that tell us what is just and unjust, but in fact justice is based on experience and we must learn justice throughout the lifespan. Additionally, social morality is also dependent on progress and experience. “This firm foundation is that of the social feelings of mankind; the desire to be in unity with our fellow creatures, which is already a powerful principle in human nature, and happily one of those which tend to become stronger, even without express inculcation, from the influences of advancing civilization” (Mill, 27). The human’s ability to think abstractly to form a sense of community is another example of how morality is based on progress for Mill. As stated in the quote above, humankind’s nature is compliant to its society and as through time society advances the human can also adjust to the new social morals. Again, what was moral in the past might not be considered moral in the present or future and that is why progress is something that definitely should be taken into consideration in order to be moral. Furthermore, those that are against the idea of utilitarianism are concerned with the objection that there is no time previous to action that calculates the effects of happiness. However Mill responds to this with “the answer to