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Utilitarianism

John Stuart Mill

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Greatest Happiness Principle

GHP actions are right in proportion asthey tend to promote happiness, wrong as

they tend to promote the reverse ofhappiness Happiness pleasure and the absence of pain

Unhappiness pain and the privation ofpleasure

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Ends and Means

Means X is a means to Y if doing x tends to achieve Y Some things are desirable only as means

That is to say that if Y is good then X is good onlyinsofar as it tends to achieve X.

Ends X is an end if it is desirable for no other reason

That is to say that X is not a means to anything more

desirable; it is the goal. Mills Claim: Pleasure, and freedom from

pain, are the only things desirable as ends. Everything else that is desirable is so only because

it is a means to pleasure or the freedom from pain.

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Argument and Response

Argument against GRP This doctrine is worthy only of swine because it

makes pleasure the only end. What is Mills response?

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Higher and Lower Pleasures

Human beings have faculties more elevated thanthe animal appetites.

Therefore, there are higher pursuits beyondthose of mere sensation.

Why are they higher? First, they are more permanent. They are safer. They dont cost as much.

And so on. But, the best reason is to recognize a difference

in kind among pleasures. We need to factor quality as well as mere

quantity.

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Why believe in different kinds ofpleasure?

Argument Mill writes, Of two pleasures, if there be one to

which all or almost all who have experience of both

give a decided preference, irrespective of anyfeeling of moral obligation to prefer it, that is themore desirable pleasure.

Continuing, he writes, If one of the two isplacedso far above the other that they prefer it, eventhough knowing it to be attended with a greateramount of discontent, and would not resign it forany quantity of the other pleasure which theirnature is capable of, we are justified in ascribing tothe preferred enjoyment a superiority in quality(RTD 93).

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Lets work this out

Examples

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Objections (and response)

Some postpone higher pleasures to lowerones.

Some begin with youthful enthusiasm foreverything noble but sink into indolenceand selfishness in later years.

BUT, such people are probably incapableof higher pleasures or wouldnt make thesame decision if it was presented in thecorrect light.

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The Ultimate Standard

The end of human action being happinessis also the standard of morality.

Morality: the rules and precepts for humanconduct the observance of which a happyexistence might be, to the greatest extentpossible, secured to all mankind and to the

whole sentient creation.

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Requirement of Impartiality

Between ones own happiness and that ofothers, utilitarianism requires one to be asstrictly impartial as a disinterested andbenevolent spectator.

Consistent w/ the Golden Rule. Implications:

Laws and social arrangements should place thehappiness of every individual in harmony with thatof the whole.

And, education and opinion should be used toestablish an association between individualhappiness and that of the whole (RTD 96).

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Proof

First point: first principles cannot be proved.(This is a logical point.) But we can appeal to our senses.

So, Mills proof that happiness is the onlything desirable. An object is visible if people actually see it. A sound is audible if people actually hear it. And so on.

Therefore, something is desirable if people actuallydesire it.

Each person in fact desires his own happiness. Therefore, each persons happiness is desirable.

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Proof part. II

Why a part II? Because we need to getfrom each person desiring her own

happiness to desiring the generalhappiness.

Proof part II Happiness is a good.

Each persons happiness is a good to thatperson. Therefore, the general happiness is a good tothe aggregate of all persons.

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Convinced?

Why or Why Not?

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Sole Criterion?

Yes and no.

Some things other than happiness are

desired as ends in themselves. But, they werent or neednt be always sodesired. Some things start off as merely ameans to happiness but come to be desired for

themselves, e.g., virtue.