notes for my classmates

1. J.S. MILL, UTILITARIANISM (1863)
By: Carlo Uozoia AB-Philosophy 3

2. JOHN STUART MILL
(1806-1873, ENGLAND)
Mill “had a lifelong goal
of reforming the world
in the interest of
human well-being”
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill/

3.  There ought either to be some one
fundamental principle or law, at the root of
all morality, or if there be several, there
should be a determinate order of
precedence among them…”

4. OVERVIEW OF MILL’S UTILITARIANISM
Simplified:
 we can judge the moral value of actions by
the degree of happiness they tend to
produce for sentient creatures involved.

5. UTILITARIANISM
 J.S. Mill wanted utilitarian principle as the
foundation of morals
 This principle says actions are right in proportion as
they tend to promote overall human happiness.

6. TWO FORMULATIONS OF UTILITARIANISM
1. Act Utilitarianism
 an action is objectively right, if it actually promotes
happiness.
 It requires us to aim for the maximization of happiness.
 Act in a way that promotes happiness the most.

7. TWO FORMULATIONS OF UTILITARIANISM
2. Rule Utilitarianism
 an action would be objectively right, if it actually
corresponds to rules that promote happiness.
 It requires us to observe rules that facilitate happiness.
 Follow a rule whose general observance promotes
happiness the most.

8. FIRST FORMULA OF UTILITARIANISM
 The creed which accepts as the foundation of
morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle
(GHP), holds that actions are right in proportion as
they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they
tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By
happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of
pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of
pleasure. To give a clear view of the moral
standard set up by the theory, much more requires
to be said (…). But these supplementary
explanations do not affect the theory of life on
which this theory of morality is grounded….”

9. SECOND FORMULA OF UTILITARIANISM
 According to the GHP… the ultimate end … is an
existence exempt as far as possible from pain, and
as rich as possible in enjoyments, both in point of
quantity and quality; …. This, being, according to
the utilitarian opinion, the end of human action, is
necessarily also the standard of morality; which
may accordingly be defined, the rules and precepts
for human conduct, by the observance of which an
existence such as has been described might be, to
the greatest extent possible, secured to all
mankind; and not to them only, but, so far as the
nature of things admits, to the whole sentient
creation.

10. TWO FORMULA OF UTILITARIANISM
 The Second Formula relates the principle of utility
to rules and precepts and not to actions. It seems to
say that an act is correct when it corresponds to
rules whose preservation increases the mass of
happiness in the world. And this appears to be a
rule-utilitarian conception.

11. TWO FORMULA OF UTILITARIANISM
Act Utilitarianism
- what is right and what an
agent has most reason to
do.
Rule Utilitarianism
-we are morally obliged
to follow those social
rules and precepts the
observance of which
promotes happiness in
the greatest extent
possible.

12. SOURCE:
 Mill, John Stuart, The Collected Works of John
Stuart Mill. Gen. Ed. John M. Robson. 33 vols.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1963-91.