Disadvantages Of John Stuart Mill's Theory Of Happiness

Utilitarianism is a normative moral approach to ethics that tries to maximise the pleasure and minimises the amount of pain in given a situation. John Stuart Mill analysis the principle of Utility, Utility meaning ‘happiness’. Mill often thought it was important that in any given situation that happiness is supposed to continue to be uplifted (Mill, 1864 p.9). Mill examines, that happiness is the ultimate end in which every human lives their life to, and so anything has to be a means for that end to happen (Mill, 1864 p.52). In linguistic terms, it can be described as a “’theory of usefulness’” – (Vardy & Grosch, 1994 p.63) after the Latin origin of utils meaning usefulness (Vardy & Grosch, 1994 p.63).

Literally, any action must be viewed as either morally right or morally wrong. Vardy and Grosch mentions an ethical situation of abortion (Vardy & Gosch 1994 p.63). The theory first began to be used by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) the …show more content…
This is so the future is understood better (Cave, 2011, p.62). Also, Utilitarianism has an unprejudiced concern for the overall welfare of people Utilitarianism allows minimal pain on humans and animals as much as possible which is seen to be a good thing as there will be minimal suffering (Cave, 2011 p.62). Additionally, Utilitarianism focuses on human flourishing which can be argues as an Aristotelian direction to be able to understand this. Likewise with Deontology, Utilitarianism has fixed principles that is unlikely to change, for instance, not killing. This allows individuals to rely on the moral theory and to perform their own rights democratically to go with the majority to become fair (Cave, 2011 p.64). Also, another version that can be viewed as indirect is rule Utilitarianism. Rule Utilitarianism identifies the right action that maximises the greater number of people (Cave 2011