IDEAS OF JOHN STUART MILL.docx - IDEAS OF JOHN STUART MILL...

IDEAS OF JOHN STUART MILL
UTILITARIANISM
 Utilitarianism is a set of ethics in which john Stuart mill states that the
most moral of actions are those which provide the best possible
happiness for the greatest number of people.
 With a consequentialist ideology where mill judges the morality of
actions by their effects on society, it was the effect on the masses that
was so crucial
 John Stuart mill proposed that societal happiness is fundamental to
any nation, even if that meant at the expense of personal gains
 Mill’s idea of utilitarianism was heavily influenced by the works of
Jeremy Bentham
 Religious utilitarianism was very popular thought:
 God wills what needs to be done and it is ultimately in the favour of
God where we achieve the greatest utility
 Mill rejects the epicurean view of utilitarianism.
o There is no higher end than pleasure: mills rejects this
because he believes there is a distinction between animalistic
and humanistic pleasures, and a distinction must be drawn
o He argues that it is absurd that pleasures only be measured in