Utilitarianism

Description

This essay is one of John Stuart Mill’s most important works and one in which he puts forward and defines the concept of utilitarianism – the theory based on the principle that a human action can be considered right to the extent it promotes happiness and it is deemed wrong to the extent it promotes unhappiness.

The essay has five chapters. The first one introduces the theoretical framework of utilitarianism, the second defines the concept and explains the most common misconceptions related to the theory, the third presents the rewards and the sanctions to be expected of utilitarianism at work, the fourth discusses methods to validate the concept and the fifth examines the connection between utility as such and justice, arguing that justice must be founded on the notion of happiness.

Mill’s work was influenced by a long philosophic tradition, particularly by Jeremy Bentham’s theory of the greatest happiness. In terms of Bentham’s theory, humans must always act in a way to produce the greatest amount of happiness, but Mill takes the principle one step further by distinguishing between different kinds of happiness from a qualitative perspective. He deems pleasures intellectual or moral in nature to be superior to physical pleasures and he also distinguishes between contentment and happiness, assigning higher value to the later. He also uses quantitative terms when speaking about happiness, saying that it is not the individual’s happiness that really matters when determining the value of actions, but the amount of happiness those actions create for humanity.

John Stuart Mill is one of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century, his oeuvre being an important contribution to modern social and political thinking. His theories have been further developed and also passionately debated by numerous important thinkers of our times, making Mill’s Utilitarianism one of the most important texts in modern philosophy.
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