mill general Flashcards
definition of utilitarianism
The theory that the right or wrong of any act is determined by the calculation of the general happiness consequent upon that act.
advantages
- Clear and economical theory
- Widespread intuitive support
- High ethical standards – it demands a lot from moral agents. Need to maximise happiness of everybody. High normative bar
external objections
- Repudiation of ethical rationality as universal: Williams, Nietzsche or MacIntyre
- Platonic/Kantian rejection of teleological model. The sovereignty of goodness – morality is categorical not hypothetical
- Kierkegaard and Barth: the religious rejection of Utilitarianism
mill
- Familiar with Plato
- Saw issues with Bentham’s utilitarianism – viewed depression as linked to errors in Bentham’s thought
- Saw issues in pre-revolutionary France, couldn’t appreciate religious institutions
o Unlike Coleridge, who looked at institutions and asked, ‘what do these institutions mean for a good life?’. What is the meaning of the truth?
naturalism
- Naturalism - wants to distinguish morality from natural propensities e.g. prudence
o Morality = based on aspect of human being e.g. patience
justice and utility
o Justice takes precedence
o Moral sense can know what is right/wrong
o Need for security, justice is important
o Illusion that morality and utility conflict
religious belief
o In a letter to Comte (CW xiii 491-2), Mill expresses an awareness of being overly religious
o His Autobiography refers to religion not theism – disguise for atheism
o Never became a believer but did come to appreciate the important role of religion in society
principles of ancient greeks
o Did not adopt religious principles, but rather the principles of the ancient Greeks
♣ Especially Socratic virtues of justice etc.
♣ This reflects his dad’s influence
♣ ‘Mill describes his father’s moral principles as Epicurean, with pleasure and pain being the standards of right and wrong’ (xii)
how did he find out about utility
- his father James Mill worked closely with Bentham
o JS Mill (junior) read B’s work when he was around 14/15 - Was reading B’s Traités de législation and realised the value of the principle of utility
o ‘Mill became convinced that in Benthamism lay not only the true foundation of a system of thought but also the prospect of radical, progressive social change’ (xiii)
commitment to reform
o M had a commitment to reform
♣ But did not idealise immediate change
• Struggle independent of pleasure = important
• Cannot fully separate pleasure from life
o Power of Util in reform diminished over course of life – but, never completely separated himself from the principle
enlightenment vs. romantic in mill life
- ‘having had an analytically rigorous Enlightenment education emphasising rationality and empiricism, Mill now turned to embrace elements of the Romantic reaction – not as a way of turning his back on science and rationality…but so as to recognise the roles of feeling, sentiment, emotion…and culture in constructing human character in its full diversity and richness’ (xiv)
o don’t get confused – this happens after his emphasis on Util has diminished
relationship with Harriet
o she was married
o decided that her divorcing would produce too much unhappiness
o love triangle – strain on Mill’s relationships with family and friends
o they married after John Taylor’s death
emphasis on the community
o emphasis on cultivation of the mind – may involve self-sacrifice
o mixes natural instinct with social feelings – must recognise ourselves as part of a larger whole
o feeling of unity with the community is ‘tantamount to a ‘religion of humanity’ in which the self-transcending identification is with the human. At the same time, he recognised that a key danger of such a doctrine was that it might become so highly developed and dogmatic as to interfere with human freedom and individuality’ (xviii)
o ‘the balance between the individual and the collective, and the psychological and the social, was a delicate and mutually interdependent one’ (xxix)
♣ encounter with FR positivist Comte influenced his emphasis on moral motivation
LINK TO KANT - DEONTOLOGICAL VS. TELEOLOGICAL BUT BOTH HAVE EMPHASIS ON COMMUNITY
- How does Util fit with On Liberty? Is it consistent?
o In On Liberty, liberty = rule
o Should not harm others
o ‘some of the discussion suggests that protecting individual freedom in self-regarding actions would in each case…be optimal for happiness. If that is so, the justification looks like an act-utilitarian one’ (xxix)
o both attempt to ‘explore the causal conditions for the development of active character and the associated evolving possibilities for human flourishing in the widest possible sense. And we should recognise that he saw the social and political conditions of the West as rapidly changing, becoming more egalitarian’ (xxx)
- tensions between liberty and utility can be seen in Logic
o promotion of happiness = goal of teleology
o ‘our lives are more complex and infinitely richer in part because we pursue ends and goods that are not themselves identified with happiness; and even the rules we follow…may be justified by aspects of human psychology rather than directly with reference to happiness’ (xxx-xxxi)
