John Stuart Mill
Jake, Maria, Stuart & Tommy
Life History
Born May 20th, 1806 in London
Father, James, was a economist, philosopher, and historian
John was home schooled by his father
-Very intense schooling
-Father's goal was to make a genius
At age 13 he started studying Smith and Ricardo
-Completed some of their work
History continued...
Around age twenty he started having mental issues
Refused to study at Oxford and Cambridge
Followed his father's footsteps into work at East Indian Company
Married Harriet Taylor in 1851
He was Lord Rector at University of St. Andrews and served on
Parliament in Westminster
Died in France on May 8th, 1873 at age 66.
Influences on Work
His Father, James Mill
-Biggest influence
-Utilitarianism
Jeremy Bentham
-Utilitarianism
Aristotle & Socrates
-Early years of schooling
Influences continued...
David Ricardo
-Family friend
-Political economy
Harriet Taylor, Wife
-The Subjection of Women
-On Liberty
-Human Rights
Samuel Bentham (Jeremy's Brother)
-Lived with for a year in France
-Math and Sciences
Early Works
John Stuart Mill had many early works prior to his paper on
Utilitarianism.
They include among others:
• Views On Liberty
• Freedom of Speech
• Human Rights and Slavery
• Feminism
On Liberty
• Individual should be able to do as he pleases unless he harms
others.
• Government should only interfere when it is for the protection of
the society
"The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or
collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their
number, is self-protection. That 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."
Freedom of Speech
without allowing them to hear what can be said on the contrary side
• Argued for Freedom of Speech based on political grounds saying
that it is a critical component for a representative government to
have in order to empower debate over public policy
• Personal growth and self realization
• Without being able to speak freely, how are we to know what a
person can accomplish?
Human Rights/Feminism
• Responded to Thomas Carlyle's paper about genetic inferiority, in
which he stated that there was in fact no genetic inferiority and
that all men we capable of doing great things.
• In "The Subjection of Women," Mill argues for perfect equality.
• Mill believed that female roles were misconstrued in the days
society.
3 Major Reasons for the Subjection of Women
1. Society and gender construction
2. Education
3. Marriage
UTILITARIANISM
UTILITARIANISM (1863)
Chapter One: General Remarks
• Ongoing conflict of determining right and wrong
o Morals vs Legislation
o Problems with science: do not prove the "good" & leave out
morals
o Science of Morals
• Principle Law at Root of all Morality: decides for various conflicting
principles
o Great Happiness Principle
• Universal Principle & the origin and ground of moral obligation: "So
act, that the rule on which thou actest would admit of being adopted
as a law by all rational beings"
Chapter Two: What Utilitarianism Is
FOUNDATION
"Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, and
wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness"
• pain vs pleasure
o life has no higher end than pleasure, different kinds of pleasure
being more desirable than others based on quantity and quality
• Dignity Factor: "Better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig
satisfied"
• Expectations vs Accessibility
Directive Rule of Human Conduct: "greatest amount of happiness all
together"
o one may be happier than another but acceptable as long as rest of
world gains
Great Happiness Principle
"The ultimate end"; "is an existence exempt as far as possible from pain,
and as rich as possible in enjoyments, both in point of quantity and
quality; the test of quality, and the rule for measuring it against quantity,
being the preference felt by those who in their opportunities of
experience, to which must be added their habits of self-consciousness
and self-observation, are best furnished with the means of comparison."
o the end of human action
o standard of morality
o the rules and precepts for human conduct
• Need to:
o Balance
o Sacrifice own happiness for someone elses: "highest virtue which
can be found in a man"
 Object of Virtue: multiplication of happiness
Chapter Three: Of the Ultimate Sanction of
the Principle of Utility
How do we get people to behave in a proper way and to honor
utilitarianism?
Sanctions
• Internal vs. External
• Duty
o Ultimate Sanction: in the conscience and feeling in mind
• Nature & Equality among population
Opposition to Government, Politics, and Religion
"
Chapter Four: Of What Sort of Proof the
Principle of Utility is Susceptible
PROOF
"Sole evidence it is possible to produce that anything is
desirable...that people actually desire it."
o Happiness is a good: that each person's happiness is a
good to that person, and the general happiness,
therefore, a good to the aggregate of all persons.
o People vary in other desires, but happiness is universal
Parts of Happiness
• Money
o "Moving forces of human life, desire to possess it is
stronger than desire to use it"
o Principle ingredient of individual's consumption of
happiness
• Virtue
o Want people to desire virtue
Habits
• In feeling and in conduct, habit gets in the way of doing good
• we rely on ourselves and each other, "habitual independence"
Chapter Five: On the Connection between
Justice and Utility
Justice
• Right and Wrong
o Unjust: Depriving someone of the things they are allowed
to by legal right
• Receive good for doing good
• In all languages, the word justice deals with the law, or
conforming to the law, or a legal constraint, yet the "notion of
justice varies in all different persons, and always conforms in
its variations to their notion of utility"
Law
• "Valid claim on society to protect him in the possession of it"
• Do not restrict ones legal rights, but moral rights, thus no
piece of justice can be carried out without trampling
another
9\
• Government contradicts equality
Unjust Actions
o
o
o
A wrong done
An assignable person performing a wrong done
An individual being harmed
When are we legally constrained? When are we punished? What is the
proper punishment? How is that determined?
• Law, our conscience & duty, or by others
Punishment:
• Should be proportional to the offense
Adaptations of Utilitarianism
• Prioritarianism
o
o
o
o
Not to Maximize happiness, but to Minimize Pain
Not simply overall well-being
Compassion – Help out worse off individuals
Many people with average lives is better than a large deviation
of well-being amongst people
 Situation A: Jim: 110
Jane: -70
 Situation B: Jim: 20
Jane: 15
Repugnant Conclusion
• AKA Mere Addition Paradox
• As a population grows, the Wellbeing will decrease..
But there are more happy people
• Population Ethics
• Basically we need to acknowledge the fact that
simply maximizing the utility is not the only important
factor. Morality of growth of the population and a
sense of duty to have children must be taken into
account.
• Challenge of Modern ethics
What have we learned
• John Stuart Mill
o
o
o
British born Son to Economist/Philosopher
Unique upbringing
Many influences growing up such as:
 Jeremy Bentham, David Ricardo, Aristotle, His
family (Wife, brother and father)
o
Had mental issues in his 20’s, died at the age
of 66
Impacts on the world
• Early Works:
o
o
o
o
Liberty
Freedom of speech
Human Rights
Feminism
Also: Limiting power of government, social
liberty
Utilitarianism
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•
•
•
•
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Conflict of Determining right and wrong
The foundation
Great Happiness Principle
How to regulate and guide this idea
Explain why happiness is so crucial
Decisions about punishment and praise
Conclusion
• The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy. "John Stuart Mill." Utilitarianism : Past,
Present and Future. BLTC Research. Web. 11 Feb. 2012.
<http://www.utilitarianism.com/jsmill.htm>.
• Econlib. "John Stuart Mill: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics." Library of
Economics and Liberty. Liberty Fund, Inc., 2008. Web. 11 Feb. 2012.
<http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Mill.html>.
• Mill, John Stuart. "Utilitarianism." Utilitarianism : Past, Present and Future.
BLTC. Web. 24 Feb. 2012. <http://www.utilitarianism.com/mill1.htm>.
• http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/repugnant-conclusion/