John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill JS Mill was the son of Bentham’s colleague James Mill. He received a rigorous education. Greek at 3 and Aristotle at 13. He had a breakdown at 20 and started to question Bentham’s theory, upon which he had been brought up. Bentham had an easy life and so he had failed to grasp what was really important to humans. “ He never knew poverty, adversity…he never had the experience which sickness gives, he lived childhood to 85 in boyish health.”

John Stuart Mill Mill criticised Bentham saying “Humans are not governed in all their actions by their worldly interests.” There are other motivations like justice, truth and love. He did not reject the whole theory as he still thought it was important to improve society by maximising what was good. He thought that it was not just about happiness but that other things allow us to live a “good life.” (honour, dignity, generosity)

John Stuart Mill He argued that the quality of happiness was more important than the quantity. Eg. Gang rape (page 81 foundations notes) Mill contended that pleasure derived from intellectual pursuits rated more highly than those of a physical origin. So the opera would be a higher pleasure and eating would be a lower one. Mill argued that once physical needs were met then people would prefer higher pleasures over lower ones. He also thought that the higher pleasures should be available to the lower classes.

John Stuart Mill He argued that humans should achieve their highest potential “it is better to be a man dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.” It is better to have some but not enough higher pleasures than to just be satisfied with the lower ones- more evidence that we should look at the principle of utility in a qualitative way than a quantative way.

Rule Utilitarianism Happiness is too subjective “complex and indefinite” (Mill) to be the measure of the moral worth of an action. Happiness is an unspecific term and so we have to be careful how we use it as a moral tool. A Calculus is unnecessary since we have all worked out what produces happiness through trial and error. We have already worked out how to produce happiness with certain rules. He called these secondary principles: Eg. “Do not lie, keep your promises, protect the weak,” Secondary principles- rules which if kept lead to happiness.

John Stuart Mill Mill asserted that unlike “act utilitarianism”, put forward by Bentham, which said that we should decide on the morality of an action by using the principle of utility… We should use “Rule utilitarianism” which means we should have a set of rules which, if everyone kept them, would lead to the greatest overall happiness. Eg. It is better not to put the innocent in prison because this undermines the respect for the law.

John Stuart Mill Strong rule utilitarianism There are a number of rules which have instrumental value. These should always be kept. So they may say that you should never lie even if it seems to promote happiness in one particular situation. This is because if we assess all the situations, when people have a choice whether to lie or not, together then we would conclude that it is of greater instrumental value for everyone to tell the truth than for everyone to lie. So any unhappiness caused by telling the truth is a sacrifice made by the minority for the majority and is acceptable.

John Stuart Mill Weak Rule Utilitarianism There are principles which have instrumental value but these can be broken at times.

John Stuart Mill The Harm principle Mill was concerned that if the priority was given to the majority then this might prevent diversity and therefore freedom. This raised the question over how much pressure the majority is allowed to exert on the minority. Eg. A nanny state- Should the majority be allowed to prevent a person (minority) from risking his own life by using drugs? “the principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” You can only interfere with another’s decisions if it affects others. Can you think of an example? Why would drink driving be an example of this?

John Stuart Mill- Advantages Mill’s utilitarianism is more sophisticated than Bentham’s and does address some of the criticisms levelled at Bentham. Mill does not look at specific actions but at general principles that produce more pleasure than pain. The “evil” actions permitted by Bentham eg. Gang rape are not allowed by Mill due to the consideration of the quality of happiness and because of a focus on general principles not specific acts.

Nina Rostenstand The harm principle is the foundation of the civil liberties: that citizens have the right to privacy, to do whatever they wish as long as it does no harm. What about in the case of a suicidal teenager? What should we do? Mill would say that the teenager is causing harm to others eg. The family and so the majority could interfere. Indirect harm- others might copy the suicide- Mill did not consider this to be grounds to interfere.