A summary of Utiliterianism by John Stuart Mill

In his book Utilitarianism , philosopher John Stuart Mills expands and defends the notion of using the theory of utility to decipher between right and wrong , good or bad , in an attempt `to rescue it from utter degradation ' from those who have misapplied the theory . This brief essay will summarize Mills ' view of utilitarianism by outlining its main themes and issues

Mills is primarily concerned with determining how feelings of pleasure beauty and happiness play into our ethical standards . His theory is founded upon the belief that a rational human being will make

choices and act with the goal of achieving and fulfilling the greatest utility For Mills , the words pleasure and utility are interchangeable , a point he makes in reference to criticism received by previous theories of utility that limited the range of utility 's possibilities

In contrast to his predecessors , Mills advances the Greatest-Happiness Principle in chapter two . This principle holds that any action can be judged `right ' or `good ' as long as they promote happiness . In fact the principle states that the degree of `rightness ' or `goodness ' of an act stands in direct proportion to the amount of happiness the act promotes . This has far ranging consequences because it is not limited to the happiness achieved by an individual in each context , but more importantly it takes into account the greatest human happiness that results from any particular action

Utilitarianism , then , creates a model by which human beings can gauge their actions with the metric of utility for...