Kant’s view on duty has to do with duty for the sake of the law but Mill’s view is that one duty is increasing happiness among large numbers of people. They both feel that a person has a duty to fulfill whether it is self-sufficient or because they are following rules. A similarity that follows both Aristotle and Mill is that they both founded their views on happiness even though they might disagree on their understanding of the subject. Aristotle vies happiness as an “end in itself”, whereas Mill sees happiness as both quality and quantity. Mill has many similarities with both Kant and Aristotle.…
In John Stuart Mill’s influential book “Utilitarianism”, Mill introduces the belief that moral action is based upon the concept of utility, or how he explains it, the greatest happiness principle. It is this greatest happiness principle that defines Utilitarianism as the notion that the best moral actions are those that promote the most amount of human happiness. Actions that would be regarded as the least favorable are those that promote the opposite, unhappiness. The concept of Utilitarianism and that of Consequentialism are similar as both judge the moral value of an action dependent on its consequences, however each claim leads to different conclusions.…
Paul Gauguin, a famous painter of his time, quit his job so that he could have more focus to pursue his artistic career. Not only did he quit his job, he left his wife and five children to travel to Tahiti and immerse himself in the culture. While he found great success in his endeavors, inspiring many other artists and solidifying himself as one of the most prominent artists of all time, he did not know that things would turn out this way. In this paper I will be drawing on John Stuart Mill and Friedrich Nietzsche’s differing opinions on moral theory as well as my own interpretation of the event. John Stuart Mill, commonly considered to be one of the great British philosophers of the nineteenth century, was a driving force in the moral theory…
It follows then that an individual’s actions are counted as being moral or immoral by how useful those actions are to the majority of people. There is no law or universal rule that trumps the fact that a larger quantity of people are seen as more useful than a smaller quantity from a utilitarian perspective. Similarly, John Stuart Mill would justify his recommendation to Jim in accordance to the theory of consequentialism or determining whether an action is right or wrong by analyzing the consequence it produces. If the act performed benefits a large group of people, the many instead of the few, then it is considered to be right or moral. On these premises Mill could then assure Jim that his actions were moral because more lives were being…
First the citizens must give themselves up to the law of the society, they must allow restrictions and limits to be placed upon them for the society to run effectively. Secondly the citizens must put themselves under the protection of the society and trust that they will be defended and taken care of. When this trust is given to the society and the government then they can effectively protect and ensure “the peace, safety, and public good of the people. This is contrary to what Mill would argue as he does not believe citizens should submit themselves to society and give away their rights. He believes that as an individual citizen you should fight for your opinion and never give into society.…
The Argument of Utilitarianism In “Utilitarianism” John Stuart Mill presents the case of Utilitarianism as a moral theory. Moral theories are structured as a set of statements used to predict a set of factors or concept. Moral theories are thought to be universal and tell which action is the right one in any given situation. Utilitarianism is one the most influential and best known moral theories, often called “The Greatest Happiness Principles”.…
Mill’s work goes into depth on how much liberty should be granted to the individual and to what extent the government should be able to intervene with these liberties for the betterment of society. I agree with Mill on what the basic tenets for his argument on freedom of speech are (i.e. truth, utility, social progress). I also accept that the justification of freedom of speech as that which can bring about such things as truth and social progress. He provides a clear explanation for society as to why it is important to allow others to state their opinions and not infringe upon the free speech of others. It seems clear that acting in accordance to this precept will lead to the overall betterment of society.…
In efforts to find summum bonum or the ultimate good, philosophers during the 20th century began to investigate ethical issues, and tried to create their own versions of an ideal moral code. During this time, John Stuart Mill and Peter Singer base their ethical beliefs in the philosophy of utilitarianism. Both Mill’s essay Utilitarianism and Singer’s work Famine, Affluence and Morality explore the pursuit of happiness and its relation to moral philosophy. The doctrine of utilitarianism emphasizes the consequences of one’s actions as they add to the sum total of happiness.…
Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill made Utilitarian Ethics in the nineteenth century. The fundamental commence is that activities that give the best measure of good finished terrible or malevolence are moral or good decisions. For instance on the off chance that you advised a mislead ensure somebody's life that would be viewed as a decent moral decision under the Utilitarian Ethics framework. Less mischief is finished by the lie than by coming clean and putting an existence in danger. Be careful however, for this arrangement of morals drives us not far off of "The end legitimizes the signifies" sort of reasoning.…
John Stuart Mill is a very important and popular philosopher in the 19th century. He is one of the earliest advocates of Utilitarianism. He defines the theory of utilitarianism in his book, Utilitarianism. It focuses on the general good of individual pleasure. Mill tried to provide evidence for his theory of moral utilitarianism and refutes all the arguments against it in his book.…
The recent events below have led to a series of protests over the past year but recently in the media the public has been advocating for the rights of African Americans in America based off of the neglect of the justice system for these young black men. These situations were all against young black males that had absolutely no reason to be murdered as a means to a solution. As these three situations only stand as representations of the many black male to be victimized by the police system in America it also shows us that although we have made strides in race relations and equality we still have a very long and tiring journey to go to be fully accepted by our fellow counterpart. Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by a Chicago…
Summum bonum is the highest form of good according to the values and priorities in an ethical system. For John Stuart Mill, the summum bonum is happiness. Mill is lead to this belief by regarding happiness as the ultimate aim of humanity – to live a life as free from pain and as rich in enjoyment as possible. This is the ideology of utilitarianism, or Mill’s moral theory that judges the ethicality of an action following its utility. Mill’s argument of chapter 2 of Utilitarianism is defining the greatest happiness principle and addressing misconceptions and criticisms opponents have.…
In class, we have been discussing ethical theories as well as practicing placing these theories to cases. Ethical theories are a set of principles of right conduct and a system of moral values. The field of ethics involves systematizing, defending, and deciding different concepts of right and wrong behavior. In this day, philosophers are known to separate ethical theories into either metaethics, normative ethics, or applied ethics. I’ve chosen to focus on John Stuart Mill and Aristotle’s opposing argumentative theories which help teach me to analyze the cases provided to me.…
Mill believes that he figured out a way to overcome the opportunity for immoral acts to take place. But even Mill’s distinction of the…
He does not recognize that the society he wants women to participate in needs to be fundamentally changed. Mill believes that simply removing the barriers to women in a patriarchal society will allow them to flourish. This is an invalid conclusion because it devalues feminine qualities. Mill imagines a female being we cannot imagine because women have been so restricted from embracing their true nature. He does not however consider that a women’s version of success may not be identical to that of a man’s.…