John Stuart Mill 180673

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John Stuart Mill (1806-73)

• UTILITARIANISM
• (CONSEQUENTIALISM)

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But first, unfinished business

• We saw (not quite) that one of the major problems
  with Kants moral philosophy, at least for its
  critics, is that there are many practical and
  moral problems with his extremely rigid
  interpretation of duty never lie under any
  circumstances, etc.

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• First of all, Kant was aware of such criticisms,
  and at the end of the Reading you will find his
  response to one version of it.
• Basically, he accepts that sometimes a lie may
  not harm any particular individual and in some
  cases it may even save a life.
• BUT a lie harms mankind generally, for it
  vitiates the source of law itself (p.281).

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• AND If you lie to stop a murder, for example,
  then you become responsible for all the
  unforeseen (and unforeseeable) consequences of
  this lie. Whereas if you tell the truth, all
  responsibility stays with the (potential)
  murderer.
• Satisfactory answer??

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Summary

• Kants ethics is a form of deontology (focuses
  on duty).
• Our moral duties are based on Reason they are
  expressions of the law of reason.
• We are categorically obliged to conform to duty
  because of our nature as rational beings.
• Reason, and morality, forbid is to make
  exceptions to the rule based on circumstances.

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• This approach is in stark contrast to the
  approach of Utilitarianism (or,
  Consequentialism).
• We will begin looking at Utilitarianism through
  the work of the English philosopher, John Stuart
  Mill (1806-1873).

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• Mills version of Utilitarianism is based on, and
  greatly develops the work of Jeremy Bentham
  (1748-1832).
• Bentham was a so-called radical philosopher and
  wrote many proposals for social and political
  reforms.
• He formulated the greatest happiness principle
  as the basis of morality.

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• And he was also a rather strange guy

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• After death, Bentham's body was (as requested in
  his will) preserved and stored in a wooden
  cabinet, termed his "Auto-Icon", at University
  College London. It is occasionally brought out of
  storage at official functions.
• The Auto-Icon has always had a wax head, as
  Bentham's head was badly damaged in the
  preservation process. The real head was displayed
  in the same case for many years, but became the
  target of repeated student pranks, being stolen
  on more than one occasion, and is now locked away
  securely.

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• Bentham was a friend of Mills father, and was a
  huge influence on Mills thought.
• Mill formulated his moral philosophy
  Utilitarianism as an improvement upon Benthams
  account.

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• Alongside virtue ethics (Aristotelian) and
  deontology (Kantian), utilitarianism (or,
  consequentialism) is one of the 3 dominant forms
  of moral philosophy today (at least in the
  English-speaking world).
• So, what is it?

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• Principle of Utility (or, the Greatest Happiness
  Principle)
• holds that actions are right in proportion as
  they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they
  tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By
  happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of
  pain by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of
  pleasure. (p.257)

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• Seems straightforward? No it isnt!
• This principle is based, Mill tells us, on a
  particular theory of life

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• the theory of life on which this theory of
  morality is groundednamely, that pleasure and
  freedom from pain, are the only things desirable
  as ends and that all desirable thingsare
  desirable either for the pleasure inherent in
  themselves, or as means to the promotion of
  pleasure and the prevention of pain. p.257

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• Compare/contrast with
• Plato
• Aristotle
• Kant

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• So, Utilitarianism wants to promote happiness
  but, whose happiness? And which happiness?
• Whose happiness? That of everybody affected by
  the action.
• The standard of utility, is not the agents own
  greatest happiness, but the greatest amount of
  happiness altogether. p.262

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• Which happiness?
• We have already seen that, for Mill, happiness is
  closely associated with pleasure and the absence
  of pain.
• This has led to the charge of swinishness the
  charge that utilitarianism treats humans as mere
  animals pursuing physical pleasures (of food,
  sex, etc).

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• In response to which, Mill distinguishes between
  higher pleasures and lower pleasures.
• It is better to be a human being dissatisfied
  than a pig satisfied better to be Socrates
  dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the
  fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it
  is because they only know their own side of the
  question. The other party to the comparison knows
  both sides.p.260

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• Higher pleasures intellect, feeling,
  imagination, moral sentiments
• Lower pleasures bodily pleasures, mere
  sensation,
• The person who has experienced both will choose
  the former.
• Of course people who choose the former may be
  less contented, but nevertheless more happy.
  (p.260)

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• Therefore, the ultimate end of human life is
  an existence exempt as far as possible from
  pain, and as rich as possible in enjoyments, both
  in point of quantity and quality. (p.262)
• And, since this is the end of human action, it
  must also be the standard of morality.

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• Therefore, morality is the rules and precepts
  for human conduct, by the observance of which an
  existence such as this might be, to the
  greatest extent possible, secured to all mankind
  and not to them only, but, so far as the nature
  of things admits, to the whole sentient
  creation. (p.263)

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• Summary
• The goal, or end, of all sentient life is the
  minimisation of pain and the maximisation of
  pleasure that is happiness.
• Morality must be based on a recognition of this
  theory of life. The goal of morality must be to
  maximise happiness for ALL sentient creatures.

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• Next time well see how Utilitarianism proposes
  to do that.