John Stuart Mills Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is an essay by John Stuart Mill that was written with an aim to provide support to the utilitarianism value as a moral theory. Moreover, the essay responded to the misconception about the theory by different quarters. Mills defined utilitarianism as a theory based on the principle that the “actions are in the right proportion as they promote happiness and wrong if they promote the reverse of happiness” (Mill 4). He further defines happiness as the presence of pleasure and absence of pain. In the process, he explains that the pleasure can differ in quantity and quality. In that regard, the pleasures that are rooted in a person’s higher faculty should be weighted more heavily than the pleasures on the base.
…show more content…
One of the quarters argues that happiness is unattainable and hence should not be the rationale for human life. Furthermore, they argue that people can also exist without happiness. This is evidenced by the fact that all virtuous people have attained in by renouncing their happiness. Mill observed that people misunderstood the utilitarianism by interpreting the utility as the opposite of pleasure. In one of the criticisms addressed by Mills is the base and demeaning of the life pleasure. He argues that human pleasures are superior to the animalistic ones. Whenever their people are aware of their higher happiness faculty, they cannot depart from it. They cannot leave these happiness faculties uncultivated. Therefore, happiness means that people are exercising their higher faculties. From such criticisms of the theory, Mill develops the evidences that demonstrate that happiness is the rational of the people in the society. In that regard, he develops a distinction between higher and lower pleasures in human life. He notes that some of the happiness exercised by the people lies in the high faculty. Some pleasures may be the base, but it does not mean that they all of them are base. Instead, some of them are intrinsically more valuable than others. “They are desirable either for the pleasure inherent in them, or as a means to promotion of pleasure and prevention of pain” (Mill 4). Whenever people make moral judgments on an action, utilitarianism takes into account the quality of pleasures resulting from it as well as its
One of the quarters argues that happiness is unattainable and hence should not be the rationale for human life. Furthermore, they argue that people can also exist without happiness. This is evidenced by the fact that all virtuous people have attained in by renouncing their happiness. Mill observed that people misunderstood the utilitarianism by interpreting the utility as the opposite of pleasure. In one of the criticisms addressed by Mills is the base and demeaning of the life pleasure. He argues that human pleasures are superior to the animalistic ones. Whenever their people are aware of their higher happiness faculty, they cannot depart from it. They cannot leave these happiness faculties uncultivated. Therefore, happiness means that people are exercising their higher faculties. From such criticisms of the theory, Mill develops the evidences that demonstrate that happiness is the rational of the people in the society. In that regard, he develops a distinction between higher and lower pleasures in human life. He notes that some of the happiness exercised by the people lies in the high faculty. Some pleasures may be the base, but it does not mean that they all of them are base. Instead, some of them are intrinsically more valuable than others. “They are desirable either for the pleasure inherent in them, or as a means to promotion of pleasure and prevention of pain” (Mill 4). Whenever people make moral judgments on an action, utilitarianism takes into account the quality of pleasures resulting from it as well as its