Analysis Of Mill's Utilitarianism

In Plato’s Republic, Socrates rejects Polemarchus’s definition of justice – doing good to friends and harming enemies – because one cannot know good from evil unless they have knowledge of the nature of the good. Mistakes can be made in choosing good from evil if knowledge of the good is not obtained. In Mill’s Utilitarianism, Mill sees that actions are good if they tend to promote happiness (pleasure and the absence of pain) and bad if they tend to promote the opposite. This principle is what utilitarianism – the maximum pleasure, in the absence of pain, for the most people – is based on. Mill goes on to argue that the only proof that something is desirable, is if people desire it. Happiness is good, because people desire their own happiness. …show more content…
These sanctions are why people act justly and of the two, internal sanctions have a stronger influence on people’s actions. The internal sanctions are one’s conscience which creates a discomfort when one violates their duty or does wrong. On page 31, Mill states that there is a natural basis for conscience. People have a natural desire for happiness as they have a natural desire to be in unity with others. Both desires are natural, which means they are universal to all humans. Instinct pushes us to choose good over the bad and if examined in a group, the ratio of those who do good will be significantly higher than those who choose to do bad. This is because people fear punishment, not just from society, but by guilt, which is arguably more painful to bear. Socrates’s argument that knowledge must be obtained to know the good is invalid, if the good is innate and known by experience. There is no standard definition needed. Knowing the good from the bad is natural if our conscience is morally cultivated. If the conscience is not cultivated, then some error may occur between decisions of good and evil, but these are rare and insignificant in the greater scheme. In the greater picture, people do have well-cultivated consciences that know the …show more content…
This philosophy ensures the most happiness for society. Individuals desire happiness found in pleasures, and obtain happiness by doing actions that are good. “The great majority of good actions are intended not for the benefit of the world, but for that of individuals, of which the good of the world is made up…” (page 19). Our conscience influences our behavior which act, generally, in the good. This is done for individual happiness, but as individuals gain happiness, so does society. If conscience and the desire for happiness is natural, and actions that promote happiness are the good, then individuals will naturally desire the good. Desiring actions that promote happiness is proof that happiness is desirable: the good. There is no knowledge that needs to be obtained for society to choose actions that promote happiness, because happiness is desirable because it brings pleasure. Desiring the good is