Verified Document

John Stuart Mill Lessons Essay

¶ … Happiness The author of this report has been asked to answer a specific and thoughtful answer to a question about the greatest happiness principle and what it really means. Indeed, the question is how the principle is supposed to be useful and informative when it comes to guiding someone on what to do, what not to do and why. As the author expected, there is a strong correlation between this question and the general concept of utilitarianism. While the linkage and comparison of the greatest happiness principle and utilitarianism may make it easy to some to offer some explanations and insights, it just complicates things for others in some ways and the author of this response is certainly among that echelon.

Analysis

Before getting into semantics and how the principle can or should be perceived, the author of this report will quote the man who came up with the principle being cited in this report, that being John Stewart Mill. His assertion was that "utility" and "greatest happiness" were one and the same. He asserted that the actions associated with either are the ones that "tend to promote happiness" and that the opposite are ones that "tend to produce the reverse of happiness." This was his "first formula" of the Greatest Happiness principle. The second formula of the principle was the idea that the Greatest Happiness Principle was the "existence exempt as far as possible from pain, and as rich as possible in enjoyments." However, there is a key qualifier and condition in the second formula...

Of course, excluding the whole when it comes to pleasure is what many would term hedonism. While pleasure to only a few may not be seen as harm to the individual, there is not as much as happiness, in theory, as could or would be realized by the group as a whole (UTM).
Given all of that, the rules and guidelines that are useful in determining what one should or should not do are fairly straightforward. What should be done and why, basically, is based on how much good it brings to the whole. Indeed, if an action brings good or pleasure only to one person or a select few, that is generally not acceptable. This is especially true if there are other options that bring happiness to more people. For example, if there is a group of three hungry people and a limited pile of food for them to eat, one person getting to eat all they want brings good but only to one person. Allowing all three to share the food may not satiate all of them but it improves the outcomes for all three. As such, the latter would be the way to go. This is not to say that people should always be altruistic and completely non-selfish. There are situations where someone can enjoy themselves and have pleasure and have it not be at the expense of someone else. At the same time, there are ways to maximize the good for everyone. For example,…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Panera. "Day-End Dough-Nation." Panerabread.com. n.p., 2016. Web. 31 May 2016.

UTM. "Mill, John Stuart: Ethics -- Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy." Iep.utm.edu. n.p., 2016. Web. 31 May 2016.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

To Facebook or Not to Facebook Lessons From Applying for a Job
Words: 1927 Length: 6 Document Type: Case Study

Facebook Case In this case, Shaw is torn between two candidates for a leadership position in her firm. One is Parsons, an outgoing male who is active in his community with non-profits and who has strong leadership skills. The other is Jones, who is a female and equally qualified for the job. Shaw is leaning towards Parsons because of his leadership qualities, but she searches the two candidates on Google, she

Personal Freedom and Also the
Words: 3796 Length: 12 Document Type: Term Paper

Mill agrees that the mischief a person does to himself can affect others, and he finds that it is right to bring to bear moral disapprobation, Whenever there is a definite damage, the case moves out of the province of liberty and into that of morality or law. With reference to that which is merely contingent, however, society can afford to bear the inconvenience (Magid 799-800). Mill in his work on

Home Midterm ECO54 Spring 2008
Words: 2350 Length: 9 Document Type: Research Paper

Smith believed this would lead to inefficiency. However, unlike Plato, Smith did not believe that the ideal republic should decide from birth what occupation an individual should follow, rather that the individual must freely choose by his or her own will, how to direct his or her energies and labor in the most efficient and self-interested fashion, which would ultimately result in the advancement of the nation as a whole.

Political Science History
Words: 6252 Length: 23 Document Type: Term Paper

conservative intellectual movement, but also the role of William Buckley and William Rusher in the blossoming of the youth conservative movement Talk about structure of paper, who not strictly chronologically placed (ie hayek before the rest) - in this order for thematic purposes, to enhance the genuiness of the paper (branches of the movement brought up in order of importance to youth conservative revolt) For instance, Hayek had perhaps the

Violence: For God or Liberty
Words: 2300 Length: 7 Document Type: Essay

America took the notion of liberty and placed it in an economical framework, composed by Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations. Smith anticipated Marx by nearly a century when he focused on the nature of man and society in what amounted to a purely economical outlook. He views the violence that men do to one another and to themselves as stemming from an economical cause. The savage nations (hunters and

Educational Philosophy and the Nature
Words: 5286 Length: 13 Document Type: Thesis

Here the emphasis is on complete neutrality, the child being exposed to all different ways of thinking and believing (Cahn, p. 421). In the end the child will make his own choice as to what is best. Such complete freedom; however, rests upon a notion that children might indeed make incorrect choices; ones that are base don incomplete knowledge of the real world. The need to make rational choice

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now