Analysis Of John Stuart Mill Utilitarianism

There are many misconceptions that Mill believes to be either false or misleading in general. A common mistake is often made interpreting Utility or utilitarianism to be against the exact thing in which it stands for. Essentially, utilitarianism is the moral theory that one should seek pleasure, happiness, and the avoidance of pain. Mills statement expressing that the reality of what one should desire to reach in regards to moral standings is to seek pleasure and not to seek pain should hold constant throughout one’s life. Utilitarianism is all about promoting the "greatest amount of good,”. I believe that if one can indeed find pleasure while still being able to avoid pain, why not? Yes, there may be other underlying factors that may play …show more content…
Mill does not exactly say what the quantity of pleasure is, it could essentially be in regards to the amount of time in which one experienced a certain activity or the amount of “pleasures one has at any given time. Mill mainly focuses on the quality aspect of this differentiation rather than that of quantity. The quality of pleasures can be determined through experience alone. If one is given two pleasures; pleasures in which both were experienced, and were told to pick between the two, the pleasure that was chosen would be the one with the higher quality value. This choice will be linked with quality pleasure if the subject would not chose the other pleasure given the fact that more of that option may be given. Society tends to gravitate towards pleasures that acquire a higher aptitude. Those that seek this usually do not get the full bliss from what life has to offer only because being too informed about anything, and/or everything can decrease the spontaneous aspect of what the world has to offer. This is where we coin the phrase, “Ignorance is bliss.” I completely agree with the distinctions made by Mill between the quantity of pleasures and quality of pleasures. In addition I also agree that the quality of pleasures surpasses the quantity aspect. In society, one seeks to bear all knowledge of their surroundings, their peers and other facets, which is just how human beings …show more content…
For example, the trolley scenario. In this scenario, one is faced with a choice, either to allow two lives to die or five. Seeing that both choices will result in a bad outcome, a utilitarian would easily choose the five lives over the two. This could pose a problem because Mill believes that the ultimate sanction for all morality is happiness for the majority, but, in the example provided, is one’s life more precious than another. This could essentially question if the action falls under being morally right. Mill 's utilitarian view of morality is agreed upon by many. Although
There may be some skepticism about the overall idea; essentially happiness for the vast majority should want to be acquired. Mill does not strictly aim to prove whether something is good or not rather he breaks it down into three parts. One; that the only way to prove something is desirable is that a person may actually desire it, two, essentially individuals tend to desire their own happiness, and three, being happy is good. When an individual is happy it is linked to being good, good to the collective