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(BIOGRAPHY: John Stuart Mill was a  British philosopher and economist. He received a rigorous education under his father, James Mill (1773-1836), and Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), who were close friends and together had founded utilitarianism. John Stuart Mill's own philosophy, influenced by his wife, Harriet Taylor, developed into a more humanitarian doctrine than that of utilitarianism's founders: he was sympathetic to socialism, and was a strong advocate of women's rights and such political and social reforms as proportional representation, labor unions, and farm cooperatives. In logic he formulated rules for the process of induction, and he stressed the method of empiricism as the source of all knowledge. On Liberty (1859) is probably his most famous work. Among his other books are Principles of Political Economy (1848), Utilitarianism (1863), and his celebrated Autobiography (1873). One of the most important liberal thinkers of the 19th century, Mill strongly influenced modern economics, politics, and philosophy.)

Mill's moral theory is called utilitarianism, which is a consequentialist theory of ethics. By that I mean that utilitarians believe that the rightness or wrongness of an action is a function of the consequences of performing (or failing to perform) that action. Where consequentialists differ is on their beliefs about what consequences ought to be attended to when making a determination about the morality of a given action. Mill, in the selection for today, argues that happiness is the critical factor.

I. Statement of Utilitarian theory

A. "...actions are right in proportion as they as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to promote the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure." [185]

1. Explain the following claim of Mill: "pleasure and freedom from pain are the only things desirable as ends." Does this mean that we only desire pleasure?

B. Why, according to Mill, does this theory (the one Mill is proposing) "excite in many minds...inveterate dislike"? [185]What do people find objectionable about this theory?

1. Mill responds to this charge by attacking the objection itself, arguing that it is making assumptions about the sorts of pleasures humans are capable of experiencing that utilitarians do not share. Explain Mill's response.

C. Explain the different types of pleasure Mill believes humans are capable of. How do these pleasures differ from one another?

D. Explain the following quote: "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question."[187]

II. Proof of the principle of utility

A. How can we prove the utilitarian doctrine that happiness is the only thing desirable?

B. Explain why utilitarianism is NOT a version of ethical egoism. (Ethical egoists hold that one is only obligated to perform those actions that increase one's own happiness).