...John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty and Same-Sex Marriage Legalization There has been a significant amount of controversy in the past few years leading up to the current regarding the issue of legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States. In the recent election, many states have voted in favor of the legalization of same-sex marriage. However, there has been little movement towards legalization on the federal level. Earlier this year, President Obama made the statement supporting the idea that same-sex marriage should be legal. Thus, making a statement on one of the most vexed, and politically charged social issues being faced in the United States presently. Obama made this statement knowing that in a few months he would be announcing his campaign for reelection, and thus received fierce opposition from many groups as well as his Republican opponent in his race for reelection. My personal stance on this issue is that without a doubt, same-sex marriage should be legalized. In the process of legalization, it would give every American citizen regardless of sexual orientation the ability to marry and their union to be recognized on the federal level. Many individuals might argue that this would degrade the sanctity of marriage, but with the percentage of marriages ending in divorce or otherwise that argument can hardly be supported. Another opposition that is brought up repeatedly is that the Bible and other religious scriptures do not speak in support of same-sex marriage and...
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...Teaching of Mill On Liberty is a theoretical exertion by English theorist John Stuart Mill, formerly envisioned as a petite article. The effort of work, printed in eighteen fifty-nine, relates Mill's ethical coordination of utilitarianism to humanity and the government. Mill endeavors to create principles for the correlation between power and freedom. He highlights the prominence of personality which he perceived as a precondition to the complex desires of the Utilitarianism. Additionally, Mill disapproved the miscalculations of historical challenges to protect independence wherever, for example, self-governing ideals ensued in the "cruelty of the majority". Amongst the values recognized in this effort are Mill's elementary freedoms of individuals,...
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...is presented to us, there are obviously people who would abuse it to invoke emotional distress, or even to invoke acts of violence. I believe that only in particular situations in which there is an obvious threat of clear and present danger should freedom of speech be repressed, and neither Hustler nor its creator, Larry Flynt, does anything to imply danger. One such philosopher who accurately and justifiably takes the position against society and the government, such as the United States government muzzling Larry Flynt and banning parts of Hustler, is John Stuart Mill in On Liberty. Near the beginning of the work, Mill states, “…by obtaining a recognition of certain immunities, called political liberties or rights, which it was to be regarded as a breach of duty in the ruler to infringe, and which if he did infringe, specific resistance, or general rebellion, was held to be justifiable.” (Mill 115) This idea that Mill surfaces within the text, published in 1859, sounds extremely similar and points in the same direction as the facts stated within the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, created in 1789. The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or...
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...to the conclusion that his body and his senses must not exist, but does that mean he himself does not exist either? And if one doubts the existence of his or her body and senses, then the rest of the world must not exist either, therefore, one is persuaded that he himself does not exist. This leads the author to the conclusion that he exists, since he was there to be persuaded. Descartes reasons that while we must doubt everything, "doubting" is a form of thinking, which is solid proof that the he that is doing the thinking exists, and is a thinking thing. If something is believed to be true by the majority or the ruling class, does not necessitate it to be true. John Stuart Mill in On Liberty emphasizes three types of liberty; the first one he discusses to no coincidence is the freedom of thought. Mill argued that for an opinion or belief to be considered true, they must be challenged and debated. The only way one can be confident that he /she is right is to ensure complete liberty to contradict his or her opinions. A minority thought or opinion must not be suppressed simply on the basis of it being a minority,...
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...On John Stuart Mill’s production On Liberty has not only became one of the most widely known political and philosophical writing, but also produces one of the fundamental political questions on finding the balance in between liberty, democracy and authority. Although Mill’s writing was deeply influenced by Bentham’s Utilitarianism philosophy, Mill’s theory in On Liberty emphasized more around the value of individuality, equality and liberty (Donner, 1991; Skorupski, 1998). All three elements focused on by Mill, are closely connected in democratic society, Mill’s major fear was the emergence of dictatorship based on majoritarian and conformist behavior within a society (Skorupski, 2006). This essay will focus on examining Mill’s liberal ideas within On Liberty, his concept on the limitation of government’s authority, and will also suggest possible conditions where Mill’s ideas may apply in modern society. Liberty and authority are two factors that are constantly conflict. Liberty could not only mean the working of self-government and individuality, but also mean the right of freedom. Similarly, if a democratic society is lack of individuality; it could means the lack of freedom as well as the lack of what makes human. On the contrary, Skorupski (2006: p40) pointed out: “liberty meant ‘protection against the tyranny of political rulers’.” Indeed, limiting state’s authority could means preserving individuals’ rights, yet, at the same time society must give government enough power...
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...On Liberty (1859) identified John Stuart Mill’s views on defence of liberty and limited government. Mill asserts that ‘nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised over the individual.’ To encounter individual rights, what if the individual liberties of two people are getting conflict with each other? Mill states liberalism concerns about ‘harm principle’ which ‘the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.’ If the individual action does not directly harm other’s interests, the behaviour should not be interfered in spite of the refusal from general public. Harm is classified as ‘self-regarding’ and ‘other-regarding’ in which the authority can interfere with the latter. ‘Self-regarding’ is defined as harms only concerns personally, his independence of right, in which should not be prohibited under the major premise – being unaffected to any individual else. However, Mill argues that society has the responsibility of warming others to prevent an individual potential danger as other’s interests are going to be infringed . It presents the thought of ‘other-regarding’. Additionally, other-regarding is composed of ‘hurt’ and ‘harm’ among which ‘physical pain (a hurt) does not constitute a harm unless it also entails a setback to an interest.’ According to the excerpt, Mill declares ‘over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign’...
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...John Stuart Mill On Liberty Chapter IV: Of the Limits to the Authority of Society over the Individual 1. OBJECTIVE PART J.S. Mill, in his extended essay On Liberty, more specifically in Chapter 4, discusses the appropriate level of authority that society should have over the individual. He starts by rejecting the idea of social contract previously founded by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, yet acknowledges “the rights and duties” concept by stating that “Though society is not founded on a contract, […]every one who receives the protection of society owes a return for the benefit […] In each person's bearing his share (to be fixed on some equitable principle) of the labours and sacrifices incurred for defending the society or its members from injury and molestation. These conditions society is justified in enforcing at all costs to those who endeavour to withhold fulfilment.” (parag 3) Mill also offers a distinction between punishment by law and punishment by opinion. He admits that some acts are hurtful to others, but not to an extent as to justify government intervention. In these cases, public opinion may be punishment enough: “The acts of an individual may be hurtful to others, or wanting in due consideration for their welfare, without going the length of violating any of their constituted rights. The offender may then be justly punished by opinion, though not by law. (parag 3) Mill then clarifies that he believes in the virtues of goodwill and...
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...Critical Analysis #2 – Article Critique Brent Melnyk Ethical Fundamentals – JRSB311 Wes Sallenback February 5, 2013 Sarah O’Donnell, on May 11, 2009, wrote an article for the Edmonton Journal entitled, 'No-zero' policy gives students a do-over; Deadlines in the adult world often just as flexible. She describes the Edmonton Public Schools policy of “No-Zero” and allows for both sides of a touchy subject to be heard. On June 1, 2012, Edgar Schmidt, the superintendent for Edmonton Public Schools, penned an open letter to the citizens of Alberta. He wrote “In order for students to be successful in school and in life, they need the knowledge, skills and attitudes to make a smooth transition into the world of work and post secondary education. By taking an all or nothing approach to a missed assignment, we are not doing our job as educators to prepare all students, including those who face significant challenges, to take the next step in their educational journey as a lifelong learner.” (Schmidt, 2012, Para 6.) Schmidt (2012) also said, “The reason we assign a certain grade is to give a student feedback on what they have learned. If a student writes a test and gets all the answers wrong, they are assigned a zero on that test. This tells the teacher the student does not know the material and needs extra support. The mark is then put in the context of all their other learning that takes place during the year. If, by the end of the year, the student...
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...moral questions have enormous weight to them. And as human beings, we have no choice but to face them every day. It is part of the essence of what it is to be a human. There is no way out of it, no matter how much someone tries to ignore these issues, these choices must be made, and their consequences faced. Others have realized the importance of such questions and have devoted much time and writing to address them. All the way back to Plato and Aristotle, philosophers have been deeply concerned with such issues. Each has offered his own view of right and wrong and how to go about acting in the right way. Those in the field of ethics have spent much time pondering these questions. Two such philosophers were Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Each of these philosophers expounded and endorsed the principle of utility. For utilitarian’s, pleasure and pain are the two driving forces. “Nature has place mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure” (Bentham 367). For Bentham the principle of utility was the principle for ethical questions. The principle can be simply stated as providing the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. This means that Bentham is an Ethical Hedonist; the right thing to...
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...Answer Consumer Behavior from a Cardinalist and Ordinalist Approach Utility means satisfaction which consumers derive from commodities and services by purchasing different units of money.From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Ineconomics, utility is a measure of satisfaction;it refers to the total satisfaction received by a consumer from consuming a good or service. "Given this measure, one may speak meaningfully of increasing or decreasing utility, and thereby explain economic behavior in terms of attempts to increase one's utility. Utility is often affected by consumption of various goods and services, possession of wealth and spending of leisure time. According to Utilitarian's, such as Jeremy Bentham (1748- 1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), theory "Society should aim to maximize the total utility of individuals, aiming for "the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people". Another theory forwarded by John Rawls (1921-2002) would have society maximize the utility of those with the lowest utility, raising them up to create a more equitable distribution across society. Utility is usually applied by economists in such constructs as the indifference curve, which plot the combination of commodities that an individual or a society would accept to maintain at given level of satisfaction. Individual utility and social utility can be construed as the value of a utility function and a social welfare function respectively. When coupled with production...
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...Douglas L. Kaye LS312: Ethics and the Legal Environment Unit 2 Prof. Craig July 16th, 2013 John Stuart Mill developed a systematic statement of utilitarian ethical theory, which is another ethical theory based on the consequences of actions. The application of this theory involves performing the action that produces the best results for the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism can be further reduced into two sub-categories, act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. Followers of act utilitarianism think that in each ethical situation, an individual should perform the action that produces the best results for the majority of people. Rule utilitarianism requires people to construct and follow an established set of rules that should guarantee the best possible outcome for the majority of the people. Critics of both utilitarianism positions argue that it is extremely difficult to determine future consequences for other people. Another problem of utilitarianism is cost benefit analysis. Essentially, in the quest to please the majority, at what point do the minority’s interest become expendable? Assigning value to individuals in this manner, and using them as a means to an end may not always be considered moral behavior in some situations or circumstances (Kemerling, 2011). In the Palm Beach Post this week was a news article titled, "Royal Palm Beach woman charged with opening fake account, stealing $6,000 from bank" which was about a 50-year-old woman, Anna Papa...
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...Name Professor Course Date Why does Mills think that Utilitarianism provides the foundation for Justice and why does Rawls reject it? Introduction The concept of utilitarianism is one that has engulfed the philosophical arena with an obscene number of arguments that support and/or criticize it. Generally, utilitarianism is a theory in normative ethics that defines an action as one that ensures maximum utility. Other schools of thought would like to put it as the concept of “maximizing happiness while reducing suffering” (Mills 3).In as much as utilitarianism has continued to receive applause from people and the political scene, other divergent 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...
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...Morality and Social Responsibility 2 The topic of morality has been discussed for many centuries resulting in various philosophical perspectives and theories. Morality provides structure in an individual’s life which promotes motivation to act responsibly. In this paper, I will explain the three “Classical Theories of Morality” including how they align with my morals and cultural identity. Furthermore, I will explain how my cultural identity impacts social responsibility. The first classical theory of morality that I want to delve upon is Nicomachean Ethics created by philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle describes how personal morality is achieved through human nature, eudaimonia and virtuous activity. Aristotle believes that individuals must have intellectual virtues together with moral virtues to live well in communities. Intellectual virtues can be taught, moral virtues must be acquired through habit and require a certain sort of community if they are to be realized (Scalet & Arthur, 2014, p. 75). One lives a well life by developing, balancing and implementing exceptional virtues. It is our duty therefore to keep a certain character in our activities, since our moral states depend on the differences in our activities (Scalet & Arthur, 2014, p. 79). The second classical theory of morality that I want to delve upon is the fundamental principles of the metaphysic of morals...
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...Explain how a follower of utilitarianism would respond to issue raised by euthanasia. Classical Utilitarianism is teleological, and it says that the outcome of an action determines whether the action is right or wrong. The basic principle of utilitarianism is to produce the greatest good for the greatest number. When regarding euthanasia, the question of what counts as a good consequence is questioned. John Stuart Mill says that good consequences are simply happiness, happiness is pleasure and freedom from pain, this involves physical, mental and psychological pain. Mill placed a high value on this individual freedom, saying that one should have sovereignty over the things that didn’t affect other people, whether or not it led to the best outcome for that individual. He also says that good consequences depend on the quality of pleasure as well as quantity. This higher happiness stresses self-development and develops peoples rational nature. When discussing types of euthanasia, for instance voluntary euthanasia, a follower of Mills utilitarianism may apply his notion of victimless crime, as there is no crime since the patient wishes to die. However although a patient has had their wish and the doctor is simply carrying it out, there are still effects on society and on the doctor-patient relationship, thus making society itself the victim as human life loses its value. Singer agrees that we should look beyond merely pleasure, to people’s interests. This sort of ‘welfare’ utilitarianism...
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...Utilitarianism Utilitarianism was founded by Jeremy Bentham and was adopted by John Stuart Mill, whose father was an associate of Jeremy Bentham. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes the overall happiness or pleasure for all the people involved, by whatever means necessary. The moral worth of an action is determined only by its resulting outcome; therefore utilitarianism is only concerned with consequences and not with intentions of an action. Both philosophers believed that a morally good action will bring the greatest pleasure or happiness, and an immoral action will be the one that produces more pain. Therefore, everything we do and ought to do is driven by the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain. The difference between the two philosophers was that Bentham believed that only the quantity of pleasure matters, whereas Mills argues that the quality of the pleasure matters more. Both, Mill and Bentham had very similar view on Utilitarianism, but yet Mill’s was distinguished from Bentham’s. Bentham was more concerned with the amount of pleasure that is generated from an action. He did not consider that some pleasures are higher and some lower. Because of that he was able to quantify the amount of pleasure or pain according to a single set of criteria. On the other hand, Mill believed that the quality of the pleasure matters more and that all pleasures cannot be so simply quantified. The following...
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