PHIL 120 · Ethics and Political Philosophy — Utilitarianism and the Greatest Happiness Principle

Led by John Stuart Mill

The third module of the Cambridge Part IA Ethics paper, led by John Stuart Mill. Against Aristotle's ethics of character, utilitarianism offers a single principle: an action is right insofar as it promotes the general happiness. The module follows Mill's refinement of Bentham (higher and lower pleasures), his contested proof of the principle, his answers to the objections from calculation and demandingness, and his bold claim that justice is not a rival to utility but its most vital part.

1. Module 3 ○ Open

   Utilitarianism and the Greatest Happiness Principle

   Led by John Stuart Mill

   The question

   Is the right action simply the one that produces the most happiness for all affected? Utilitarianism says yes: morality has a single principle, and it is the general happiness. Mill defends this against the charge that it is a doctrine fit for swine by arguing that pleasures differ in quality and that the higher pleasures of mind and feeling are worth more — then offers a proof of the principle, answers the objections that it cannot be calculated and asks too much of us, and confronts the hardest challenge of all: that maximising happiness could license grave injustice. His reply — that justice is not a rival to utility but its most protected part, the rules that guard our security — sets up the deepest division in ethics, between grounding the right in the good and grounding the good in the right.

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