Utilitarianism A Look At J.s - 1731 Words

Kevin Billings Canzanella PHL-202 2/7/15 Utilitarianism: A Look at J.S. Mill John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher in the 19th century whose views continue to change the world today. He was a proponent of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is based on consequentialism and happiness. So in order to understand utilitarianism we must first understand what consequentialism is, and then understand how happiness is related. Consequentialism is a philosophical view in which morality means to produce the right kind of consequences. This could lead one to ask what the right kinds of consequences are. Since utilitarianism is based on consequentialism, and consequentialism is based on morality, we would look at morality to define the right kind of†¦show more content†¦Mill’s recognizes higher and lower pleasures, intellectual pleasures, aesthetic pleasures, and of course purely hedonistic pleasures. Happiness, for Mill’s seems a bit more of an objective condition of a human being; For Mill’s happiness is human wellbeing in all its complex ity and sophistication. Mill’s can then suggest that human happiness is the foundational to all of morality, and the purpose of morality to promote human wellbeing. This is because Mill’s theory is egalitarian and considers everyone’s happiness equally and that everyone’s happiness matters. In determining the correct course of action, we need to be impartial and objective, not favoring our own happiness, or the happiness of those close to us, over relative strangers. Hopefully this gives us a fundamental understand of happiness, consequentialism, morality, and intrinsic value, so we can address what is utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is a philosophical view that the happiness of the greatest number of people in a society would be considered the greatest good. According to utilitarian philosophy an action is morally correct if the consequences lead to happiness and absence of pain, and wrong if it leads to pain or absence of happiness. Utilitarianism holds that the proper course of action is based on the principle of utility and is the course of action that maximizes the utility. The Principle of Utility states an act is morally right if it produces the most amount