...Chamberlain Grizli777 John stuart mill Catherine Chamberlain Grizli777 John stuart mill John Stuart Mill was born in London in 1806. In 1873 Mill wrote an autobiography gave great examples about his life and the education he had received. Mill was given this education by his father with the assistance of Jeremy Bentham and Francis Place (Mautner, 2014). Mill had learned to speak Greek by the age of three and then Latin a little later on. Mill was a competent logician by the age of twelve. At age sixteen he had already became a well-trained economist. Mill then suffered a nervous breakdown at the age of twenty and used this nervous breakdown to come to the realization he needed more in life than just devotion to the public good and an analytically sharp intellect (Mautner, 2014). As he had grown up a utilitarian, Mill now listened to Wordsworth, Goethe, and Coleridge to help cultivate his aesthetic sensibilities (Mautner, 2014). Mill wanted the British public to understand that there was a need for a scientific approach to understand the political, economic, and social change that was happening. In Mill’s autobiography he claims he introduced the word “utilitarian” to the English language when he was only sixteen. Mill had come into contact with the idea of utilitarian thought early on in life. In Mills writing of Utilitarianism (1861) he tries to justify the utilitarian principle as the foundation for morals (Schefczyk, 2014). The utilitarian principle states that...
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...John Stuart Mill vs. Immanuel Kant The aim of this paper is to clearly depict how John Stuart Mill’s belief to do good for all is more appropriate for our society than Immanuel Kant’s principle that it is better to do what's morally just. I will explain why Mill’s theory served as a better guide to moral behavior and differentiate between the rights and responsibilities of human beings to themselves and society. Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill are philosophers who addressed the issues of morality in terms of how moral customs are formed. Immanuel Kant presented one perspective in The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals that is founded on his belief that the worth of man is inherent in his skill to reason. John Stuart Mill holds another belief as presented in the book, Utilitarianism, which is seemingly conflicting with the thoughts of Kant. What is most unique about the ethics of morality is the idea of responsibilities to particular individuals. According to both Mill and Kant, moral obligations are not fundamentally particularistic because they are rooted in universal moral principles. Both philosophers have made great impacts in their niche areas in the field. An analysis of their theories may help develop a better understanding of them and their theories. Mill holds an empiricist theory while Kant holds a rationalist theory. Kant explains morality through forms that he believes are essential to free and sensible judgment. Mill’s utilitarian approach...
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...Charles Grand Canyon University: PHI-305 Ethical Thinking in Liberal Arts Instructor John Wise September 21, 2014 The Story of Ethics states that the point of the Utilitarian theory is to conceptualize exactly what is good life by “bringing about consequences of a certain sort that is the greatest happiness for the greatest number” (The Story of Ethics). The Story of Ethics also states that the Utilitarian principle of greatest happiness for the greatest number was first popularized by Jeremy Bentham who according to the Lecture Note “version of utilitarianism is known as quantitative utilitarianism” (Lecture Note). According to The Story of Ethics Bentham states that the principle of utility recognizes right and wrong and the causes and effects from right and wrong. These effects can lead to the nature of mankind being either in pain or pleasure and “Bentham assumes that one can only act according to their aversion to pain or desire for pleasure” (The Story of Ethics). The understanding that I have gained from Bentham’s theory is that good and bad is judged by pleasure and pain that is the greater the pleasure the greater the good and the greater the pain the greater the bad. Bentham’s theory is the ethical position that influenced both John Stuart Mill and his father James Mill. According to an article in the Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia “the central aim of John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism is to defend the view that those acts that produce the greatest happiness...
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...are morally permissible if and only if they produce at least as much net happiness as any another available action”. Also, this paper we would explain the concepts by John Stuart Mill Theory on utilitarianism. History During the 18th century, there was a revolution in Europe that not only affected the industries, but also government regulations like liberty, equality and fraternity. The result of this revolution helped in creating new modernized Europe. This...
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...scholars has come up with other theories that seek to compromise the philosophies under which the concept of utilitarianism operates. As a result, utilitarianism has become subject to contradictions from other theories in the field of ethics. The thinking class in other fields of utilitarianism characterizes in as a quantitative yet reductionist approach to ethics (Mills 3). Over time, the concept of utilitarianism has received ideological threats from; deontological ethics which does not assign moral worth to an action based on its consequences, virtue ethics that solely deals with action and habits that results to happiness, pragmatic ethics and other forms of ethics that backs the idea of consequentialism. In a nut shell, the concept of utilitarianism as defined by political philosophers and in relation to justice is becoming a “battlefield” where the philosophical bigwigs continue to come up with ideas and findings that seek to either develop or criticize the existing theories. The need to understand the theories surrounding utilitarianism has given birth to such respected and honorable philosophers like John Stuart Mills and John Rawls. The two philosophers have continued to differ in their presentation of the...
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...John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, "The Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State" argue that civil government and state as we know them are tumbling, and predict the emergence of a new type of politico-social and economic structure in our Western societies on the verge to replace our ever-expending democratic states. The authors describe the modern world past “three and a half great revolutions” (p. 6) in government, all inspired and steered by the West. According to Mickletwait and Wooldridge, we are about to witness the rise of The Fourth Revolution, only this time the West will be left behind. “Why the West has led the rest of the world for over three hundred years?” ask the authors – “a large part of the answer lies in the machinery of government” (p.27) they answer. The world liberal Western States that until recently relished an unparalleled stability...
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...Situation Ethics * Situation ethics was most famously championed by Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991). * He believed that we should follow the rules until we need to break them for reasons of love. * It is based on agape love (Christian unconditional love), and says that we should always do the most loving thing in any situation. * Fletcher rejected following rules regardless (legalism) and also the idea that we should not have any rules (antinomianism) and said that we need to find a balance between the two. Four working principles When establishing his version of Situation Ethics, Fletcher used four key principles which he aimed to fulfil in writing his theory: 1. Pragmatism (it has to work in daily life - it must be practical) 2. Relativism (there should be no fixed rules) 3. Positivism (it must put faith before reasoning – "I am a Christian, so what should I do?") 4. Personalism (people should be at the centre of the theory) Six Fundamental Principles There are six fundamental things that underlie Fletcher's Situation Ethics: 1. Love is the only absolute (it is intrinsically good) 2. Christian decision making is based on love 3. Justice is love distributed 4. Love wants the good for anyone, whoever they are 5. Only the end justifies the means 6. Love is acted out situationally not prescriptivally Advantages of Situation Ethics The key advantage is that it uses rules to provide a framework but allows people to break rules to reflect life's complexities...
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...Explain the main features of the theory of Utilitarianism The theory of Utilitarianism takes its name from the Latin word Utilis, meaning ‘useful’. It was first developed by Jeremy Bentham, a philosopher and legal theorist of the 18th century. Bentham sought to produce a modern and rational approach to morality which would suit the changing society of the industrial age. Utilitarianism may be regarded as a relativist and teleological system of ethics, prescribing no fixed moral rules and judging an action by its consequences or end result (Greek: telos). Bentham argued that one should maximise happiness for the majority, ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’ a view which is known as the ‘Utility Principle’. Happiness was thus equated with moral goodness. Good is seen by Bentham as the maximisation of pleasure and minimisation of pain or Happiness=pleasure-pain. This idea further identifies Bentham as a ‘psychological hedonist’, since he regarded humans as being primarily motivated by pleasure and the avoidance of pain. A contented society would be a good society. In assessing the consequences of actions, Utilitarianism relies upon a theory of intrinsic value: something is held to be good in itself, apart from further consequences, and all other values are believed to derive their worth from their relation to this intrinsic good as a means to an end. Bentham and Mill analysed happiness as a balance of pleasure over pain and believed that these feelings alone are...
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...Philosopher Research Paper John Stuart Mill Prepared for Professor Sandra Gates Kaplan University Prepared by Lea Geckler November 1, 2011 INTRODUCTION This report discusses the history, theories, proof and weaknesses of John Stuart Mill ideals on Utilitarianism. Mill believes that if people participate in ethical actions it will create pleasure in life, and that is what most people want in life is pleasure not pain. Utilitarian’s believe the only things worth having are pleasurable experiences. Unfortunately not all experiences are pleasurable and they cause pain. Utilitarian’s define good and evil in terms of ethical and non-ethical consequences of pleasure and pain. (Brooks & Dunn, Chapter 3 pg.150) Simply stated do the ethical action and be rewarded with pleasure or do the unethical actions and be rewarded with pain, which can be physical or mental. Mill explains that pleasure and pain can be qualitative and quantitative for example; if you have a project and it time consuming, stressful and mentally exhausting this is the quantitative aspect but getting recognition from your manager or top management on a job well done is the qualitative aspect and that is the pleasure. HISTORYOF JOHN STUART MILL Mill was educated by his father and Jeremy Bentham, the founder of Utilitarianism in modern ethical thought (Encyclopedia of Ethics). He learned Greek at the age of three, Latin by the age of 8, a competent logician by the age of 12 and by age 16...
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...In both Immanuel Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism, the authors give several strong, well structured arguments on the composition of ethics. Largely, their works help to draw focus to two different explanations of what makes an action morally just as opposed to morally unjust through essentially opposite viewpoints. Despite a key difference between their philosophies, Kant and Mill contribute to an overall picture of the historical ethical argument. Chronologically, the first major philosopher, Immanuel Kant, presents an argument that is based upon solely “a priori” knowledge, or rather knowledge that does not come from experience. Kant explains that because we are all rational beings, we are able to separate ourselves from our current human condition and use our own ability to reason to see a broad picture of what is morally acceptable to others. Similarly, Kant finds that the only thing which is good without limitation is a good will; that is, it is the intention of an action that determines the moral validity of any claim, not the effects both foreseen and actual. Kant connects this idea of morality to the claim that humans should act out of duty instead of just what is according to duty. The difference between these two ideas, Kant argues, is that “according to duty” is acting in the right way only because of the negative consequences associated with not performing a morally correct action whereas “from duty” refers to the...
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...philosophers themselves in their own words - see my handouts, or for what academics say about them - see the key quotes section under the topic area of each moral theory. And if you'd like to blog on anything in the news send it to me - I'd be delighted to read it and - if it fulfils the criterion of good ethical thinking (!), post it!!!!! Utilitarianism is a normative, consequentialist, empirical philosophy which links the idea of a good action to one which promotes maximum pleasure or happiness, found by adding up costs and benefits (or pains and pleasures). It has two classic formulations - Bentham's hedonistic (pleasure-based) act utilitarianism and Mill's eudaimonistic (happiness-based) rule utilitarianism. In this article we make some preliminary comments on Bentham and Mill before analysing a famous case in 1972 where utilitarian ethics seemed to cause a very immoral outcome - the Ford Pinto case. Click here for a powerpoint presentation on the same subject...
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...Mill’s Utilitarianism. John Stuart Mill Higher and lower pleasures Mill rejects a purely quantitative measurement of utility and says: It is quite compatible with the principle of utility to recognise the fact, that some kinds of pleasure are more desirable and more valuable than others. It would be absurd that while, in estimating all other things, quality is considered as well as quantity, the estimation of pleasures should be supposed to depend on quantity alone. Mill notes that, contrary to what its critics might say, there is "no known Epicurean theory of life which does not assign to the pleasures of the intellect… a much higher value as pleasures than to those of mere sensation." However, he accepts that this is usually because the intellectual pleasures are thought to have circumstantial advantages, i.e. "greater permanency, safety, uncostliness, &c." Instead, Mill will argue that some pleasures are intrinsically better than others. The accusation that hedonism is "doctrine worthy only of swine" has a long history. In Nicomachean Ethics (Book 1 Chapter 5), Aristotle says that identifying the good with pleasure is to prefer a life suitable for beasts. The theological utilitarians had the option of grounding their pursuit of happiness in the will of God; the hedonistic utilitarians needed a different defense. Mill's approach is to argue that the pleasures of the intellect are intrinsically superior to physical pleasures. Few human creatures would consent to...
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...Ethical Relativism Vs. Utilitarianism Last time we saw Jim, he was returning from a day hike through the rainforest in South America. Unfortunately, he was captured by government troops along with rebel fighters who were being detained for execution. Fortunate enough for him, the government commander put Jim in a life changing situation, kill the rebel leader himself and he along with the remaining rebels get let go. If he failed to do so, the commander and his troops will execute all the rebels, sack their village for anything of value, and leave Jim stranded in the rainforest with no supplies, resulting in almost certain death. Through analyzing the theory of ethical relativism, we were able to decide that Jim should in fact kill the rebel leader, but what if we analyze another ethical theory? Will we come up with the same answer as we did before? Or is it possible that through the research of different theories and ideas we can come up with a completely different response to Jim’s unusual predicament? Using a new theory, utilitarianism, or, the idea that actions are right if they are useful or for the benefit of a majority, we can further analyze why Jim should still kill the rebel leader and why it is a better answer than if we were to use relativism. This paper will describe the ethical theory of utilitarianism in great detail, it will than be applied to Jim’s situation just like before, challenge opposing viewpoints of utilitarianism, refresh ourselves on why we originally...
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...century. Utilitarianism is an attempt to provide an answer to the question what a man should do in order to produce the best consequences possible for all persons affected from the action he undertakes Utilitarianism trusts on some theory of intrinsic value, meaning that when something is held to be good, all other values are assumed to deduce their worth from their relation to this intrinsic good as a means to an end. . The utilitarian takes all the happiness and suffering or pain produced by the act into consideration independent of the fact whether arising after the act has been performed or during its performance. The happiness can be considered as the result of the gathered happiness of each person involved. Utilitarianism is based on the assumption that it is possible to evaluate the consequences of two different actions by comparing their intrinsic values. Utilitarianism tries to create a complex but fair system of ethics by establishing several generalizing principles. Nevertheless, there are various problems concerning the applicability of utilitarian theory, the main problem is the subordination of the individual under the common mark since each individual has a different perception of what happiness is and how it can be obtained. Due to the fact that in most cases the individual’s idea does not correspond to that of the others, it seems impossible to believe in the existence of man’s altruism to that high extent that the subordination of the individual under the common...
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...------------------------------------------------- Top of Form Grading Summary These are the automatically computed results of your exam. Grades for essay questions, and comments from your instructor, are in the "Details" section below. | Date Taken: | 1/30/2015 | Time Spent: | 3 h , 16 secs | Points Received: | 17 / 20 (85%) | Number of Attempts: | 1 | | Question Type: | # Of Questions: | # Correct: | Multiple Choice | 20 | 17 | | | Grade Details - All Questions | Question 1. | Question : | What is Peter Singer’s point about performing vivisection on mentally disabled human infants? | | | Student Answer: | x | That if we say that it would be wrong to perform experiments on such humans but not on non-humans then we are showing bias based upon species alone | | | | That a good speciesist would not perform experiments on any being | | | | That we should test upon mentally disabled human infants because the results would be more reliable than tests on animals | | | | That anyone who would consider testing on a human infant is a monster | | Instructor Explanation: | The answer can be found on p. 6 of Peter Singer’s “All Animals are Equal.” | | | | Points Received: | 1 of 1 | | Comments: | | | | Question 2. | Question : | Peter Singer’s “basic principles of equality” applied to animals means: | | | Student Answer: | | Animals should be given all the same rights as human beings....
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