How Can Happiness Be Found? From the beginning of humanity and the ability to think, humans have tried to understand and achieve true happiness. Philosophers, scholars, and everyday people have tried to figure out the answer but have had very little success. Philosopher and hermit, Thomas Merton, in the essay “Learning to Live”, claims that society’s ideal view of success will not make one happy rather, to truly find happiness one must learn who they are, learn what they have to offer and learn to make that offering valid.…
Mill's writings defines pleasure as avoiding pain. He goes on to describe pleasure as taking form. These forms can consist of "beauty, of ornament, or of amusement" (Mill,1863). Pleasure is ranked lower if the pleasure is primal like sex or eating, higher ranked pleasures are more intellectual. If you choose between reading the Odyssey and spending time eating a cake you are choosing between high and low pleasures.…
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.…
In philosophy there are many stands to take when it comes to a view of topic shared and discovered by many. Specifically, there are three philosophers that have differing ideas on the role of pleasure in morality, Aristotle, Kant, and Mill. They share and clarify their positions through a plethora of titles and information that will help a reader gain a better understanding of the role of pleasure in morality. Though each philosopher has their own share of ideas of what the highest good represents, they all believe in morality being the search for the highest good. Aristotle begins with his description of happiness as fulfillment of all desires, in accordance with compliance of virtue.…
Many believe that happiness is a key piece for living a good life. According to the Value Theory there are two general kinds of values; instrumental value or intrinsic value. In John Mill’s argument, he argues that things having intrinsic value should be what we pursue in life to live a good one. In particular Mill’s term happiness as being the only intrinsically value. Mill’s defines happiness being intrinsically valuable, because it is valuable within itself and not for its use; which matches the definition for something to hold intrinsic value.…
John Stuart Mill did not establish Utilitarianism but instead renovated it to become an obtainable, suitable theory. The main determinant of Utilitarianisms is the Greatest Happiness principle; this principle states that a human’s main goal within their life is to have the uttermost amount of pleasure and the least amount of pain throughout their existence. Not just relating to the individual's own happiness, but that we should all produce the greatest happiness for everybody. For one person to always have the intention to create happiness for everyone and always have a successful outcome cannot always be the case. One’s personal intent for happiness cannot guarantee every person to agree that the outcome is considered beneficial.…
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”.…
John Stuart Mill believed that the outcome of an action is what determines if it is right or wrong; if a person’s actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness (Scalet & Arthur, n.d.). Mill believed that we must strive to promote happiness in general, not valuing our own happiness more than others (Schefczyk, n.d.). Although his theory seems to be for the good of everyone’s happiness, it also seems to imply that as long as the ends justify the means, than the action is right. Mill’s viewpoint reminds me of my son’s basketball team where a father felt that his son was better suited for a certain position which a smaller child had. He convinced the coach to trade positions…
If one hundred people, were asked what does it mean to live the good life, no two responses would be exactly the same. Even though everyone’s response would be different, many of the responses would most likely include being happy. Similarly to how people’s responses would differ if asked the original question, everyone would have their own definition of what happiness means to them because certain words mean different things to different people. Many of the authors that were covered in class talked about happiness and its relation to the good life. The authors that gave the most insight into their view of happiness were Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill.…
The Meaning of Happiness Mills indicates that one is in fact happy when they are in absent of pain. He describes how in life you have two options when it comes to happiness; prolonged or temporary happiness. When he describes both, and uses the term “classes” because of that fact that one you will earn and one is just simply there to hold you over until the next time you want to get that temporary set of happiness. It is well known in today’s society, that we are all choosing the temporary happiness and it is affecting our motivation as a whole. We all would rather get the quick fix of happiness instead of work for a greater version or set of happiness.…
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 ultimate aim is pleasure over pain. A utilitarian…
Happiness is an emotion that is typically explored by psychologists. This can be studied by sociologists too. Sociologists have developed theories that explain responses based on group dynamics. Karl Marx and C. Wright Mills both have a view on society based on the class system. Marx developed his theory based on power within the capitalist system.…
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’”…
In “Utilitarianism,” John Stuart Mill argues that consequences of an action are all that really matter. Defining utilitarianism at its core, is a theory holding that the moral rightness and/or wrongness of an action depends entirely on the consequences of that action. Thereby agreeing that an action or decision is considered good if it generates happiness and bad if it generates the reverse. In his ethical approach, Mill suggests that the measure of success and happiness depends on how many people and how much happiness was developed as a result of that action, or the “greatest happiness principle.” This principle, Mill declares, “holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the…