Essay about Mill Notes

Submitted By funnyface666
Words: 948
Pages: 4

MILL UTILITARIANISM * Mathematical scientific truths can still have meaning without knowledge of their base principles * Truths in Social Science have very little meaning * All actions in social science forward toward a particular end * Rules of actions depend on the ends being pursued * To know what morality dictates it is necessary to know by what standard human actions should be judged * Moral instinct * Its existence is disputable * It does not tell us whether something is right or wrong in a particular case. Rather, this instinct supplies only general principles. Thus, although general laws are a necessary part of moral thinking, it is the application of these laws to specific cases that constitutes morality itself. * Yet our moral beliefs have undergone little alteration over the course of history; their durability implies that there exists some standard that serves as a solid, if unrecognized, foundation. Mill argues that this unrecognized standard is the principle of utility, or the "greatest happiness principle." * Utilitarianism cannot be "proven" in the ordinary sense of the word, Mill asserts, since it is not possible to prove questions regarding ultimate ends. Rather, the only statements that can be proven to be valid are those statements that lead to other statements that we accept to be valid. However, this does not mean that we must judge first principles arbitrarily; we can still evaluate them rationally.

Fundamental principle of morality: greatest happiness principle Right acts- tend to increase happiness, decrease pain Wrong acts- tend to decrease happiness, increase pain

Happiness- pleasure
Types of pleasure 1. Lower a. Sensation b. Bodily c. Animal 2. Higher d. Intellectual e. Higher faculties- intellect, imagination, moral sentiments

Greatest happiness principle Happiness of everyone involved Disinterested spectator towards your own happiness * * Objections Ch. 2 * Too high for humanity objection- “They say it is exacting too much to require that people shall always act from the inducement of promoting the general interests of society.” Pg 18 * Reply: Utilitarian ism doesn’t require the motive of all human kind. * Utilitarianism requires action * Motive vs. intention * Motive * Feeling that makes you have that intention. Why you have that intention * Intention * Forward looking consequences * * Unsympathizing Objection- “It is often affirmed that utilitarianism renders men cold and unsympathizing; that it chills their moral feeling toward individuals; that it makes them regard only the dry and hard consideration of the consequences of actions, not taking into their moral estimate the qualities from which those actions emanate.” Pg 20 * Reply: character of someone doesn’t matter * Intended vs actual consequences * “Certainly no known ethical standard decides an action to be good or bad because it is done by a good or bad man, still less because done by an amiable, a brave, or a benevolent man, or the contrary. These considerations are relevant, not to the estimation of actions, but of persons; and there is nothing in the utilitarian theory inconsistent with the fact that there are other things which interest us in persons besides the rightness and wrongness of their actions.” * * There’s no time objection- “There is not time, previous to action, for calculating and weighing the effects of any line of conduct on the general happiness.” * Reply * First principle – greatest happiness principle * Secondary principle – don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal, donate * Bubble thing?^ * * Sanctions * External * Other people * God * Internal- conscience * Natural basis- social feeling of mankind * * MISSING DAY FROM CH 3 * * Ch