John Stuart
Mill -
General Introduction
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Along with Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill
developed the nineteenth century English philosophy
known as Utilitarianism, which was the contention
that man should judge everything in life based upon
its ability to promote the greatest individual
happiness (Titus and Smith 122). While Bentham is
acknowledged as the philosophy’s founder, it was
John Stuart Mill who further qualified it through logic (Titus
and Smith 124). He maintained that because human
beings are imbued with a thought capacity, they are
not merely satisfied with pleasures of the flesh.
They aspire to achieve pleasure of the mind as well.
Once man has ascended to this highest intellectual
level, he desires to stay there, never descending to
the lowly level of existence from which he began
(Titus and Smith 124).
People like Thomas Carlyle have declared that man
can live just as well without happiness. John Stuart
Mill
acknowledges that while this may be true in theory, that
men do not conduct their lives in total pursuit of
happiness, they still need a gauge with which to
measure morality. Happiness may not necessarily mean
continuous rapture, for such intense experiences are
momentary at best. Nevertheless, happiness to some
may merely translate to being the avoidance of pain.
After all, feeling nothing is certainly comparable
to feelings of pain, isn’t it? In Utilitarianism,
Mill noted, "Utility includes not solely the
pursuit of happiness, but the prevention or
mitigation of unhappiness" (Mill 11).
Mill is ultimately successful in that he points out
that contrary to popular belief, utilitarianism is
not a completely selfish motivation which does not
take into consideration the desires of others.
Virtue, while not completely synonymous with
happiness, is a component thereof, and is an
attribute desirable to society as a whole. One who
causes pain in others cannot be described as
virtuous. In the final analysis, John Stuart Mill
successfully proved his point by noting that
happiness is not an all-inclusive term. It is
comprised of many components and represents
different things to different people. Whether man is
dedicated to becoming a millionaire, famous, or
living a virtuous and healthy life, he is merely
exercising contrary means to the same end --
"pleasure and freedom from pain."
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