John Stuart Mill's Argumentative Essay

Whether it is at the dinner table or in my family’s group text message, the conversation about my brother’s custody battle with my mother’s side of the family seems to remain a bitter topic, especially when discussing my role in it. When my father physically harmed my brother to the extent to which he had to go to the emergency room, the custody trial over my brother and me began. After several sources provided the judge with accusations against my father, I was the final source that needed to assert or deny my father’s abuse; with heavy consideration, I decided to lie to the judge by denying my father’s abuse. Under the principle of utilitarianism, philosophers would infer that lying is permissible if the consequences of doing so are good.

For example, the quantitative aspects of my family’s outcome would be that my mother obtained custody of my brother, I was able to remain at boarding school, family who lived in my father’s house were able to continue living there, and my father and his fiancé’s businesses were able to stay open. An example of the qualitative aspects of the outcome would be that my brother is now at a prestigious school in California, openly gay, and has developed into his own person more freely. Other qualitative aspects would be that my father’s businesses financially flourished, which enabled him and his fiancé to pay for my boarding school, and enable family members to remain at a house that my father owned. As a result, I am now at the United States Military Academy, which I give much credit to those boarding schools that I attended. These positive qualitative aspects consisted of education, personal growth, and the strengthening of family in certain ways. One of the only objections or more complicated parts with looking at the qualitative value is trying to calculate the temporary emotional turmoil every member faced from the outcome of my