Open Philosophy Library
Open Philosophy LibraryUtilitarianismJohn Stuart Mill

Utilitarianism

By John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism defends the greatest happiness principle while distinguishing higher from lower pleasures and giving impartial weight to every person's welfare. Its five chapters examine the foundations of morality, common objections to utility, the motives that support moral conduct, the proof available for an ultimate ethical end, and the relation between justice, rights and social well-being. Mill presents secondary moral rules as essential guides while retaining utility as the final standard when rules conflict.

Publication
1861 (first published in Fraser's Magazine); book edition 1863
Genre
Utilitarian ethics; moral and political philosophy
Era
19th-Century Philosophy, Modern Philosophy

About this work

Utilitarianism, first published in 1861, is John Stuart Mill's classic defence of the view that right action promotes happiness and wrong action produces unhappiness. Mill defines happiness as pleasure and freedom from pain, but rejects the idea that all pleasures are equal. Intellectual, imaginative and moral pleasures may be higher in quality than bodily gratification, with experienced judges providing the comparison. The theory is impartial: each person's happiness counts. Ordinary conduct is guided by established moral rules, while utility supplies their underlying justification and helps decide conflicts between them. Mill examines the external and internal sanctions of morality and offers a much-debated proof that happiness is the sole ultimate end. He explains how virtue and other goods can become valued as constituent parts of happiness. The final chapter interprets justice and rights through especially important social utilities, above all security. The result is a compact but wide-ranging study of happiness, motivation, moral rules, impartiality, rights and the foundations of ethical judgement.

Contents

Related Books

Back to top of page ↑