Utilitarianism (book)

Lore & Background

Mill took many elements of his version of utilitarianism from Jeremy Bentham, the great nineteenth-century legal reformer and propounder of utilitarianism. Like Bentham, Mill believed that happiness (or pleasure) was the only thing humans do and should desire for its own sake, and that the goal of the ethical life is to maximize happiness. However, Mill also disagreed with Bentham on several points, seeking to develop a more refined form of utilitarianism that harmonized better with ordinary morality and highlighted intellectual pleasures, self-development, and conventional moral rules.

Reader's Guide

Utilitarianism remains the most famous defense of the utilitarian view ever written and is still widely assigned in university ethics courses around the world. The book was heavily criticized upon publication, but since then it has gained significant popularity and has been considered 'the most influential philosophical articulation of a liberal humanistic morality that was produced in the nineteenth century.' Mill's work addresses numerous criticisms, including charges that utilitarianism is a doctrine fit only for swine, that it is overly permissive, and that it fails to recognize the importance of justice. His responses, such as distinguishing higher and lower pleasures and advocating a two-tier approach to moral rules, have shaped subsequent ethical thought.

Did You Know?

• Mill abandoned Bentham's view that pleasures differ only in quantity, arguing that intellectual pleasures are higher and more desirable than bodily pleasures.
• Mill argued that the ultimate sanction for utilitarianism is internal, rooted in humans' natural desire to be in unity with fellow creatures.
• The fifth chapter addresses what Mill considered 'the only real difficulty' with utilitarian ethics: whether it might license acts of flagrant injustice.