Main Characteristics Of John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is a normative ethics theory according to which the rightness or wrongness of an act is determined by the outcome and its effect on the total happiness. According to Jeremy Bentham, it is ‘that principle which states the greatest happiness of all those whose interest is in question, as being the right and proper… end of human action’. John Stuart Mill, in his book Utilitarianism, states that all “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness”. Happiness, according Mill, is “pleasure and the absence of pain”. In his book, Mill states that happiness is desirable (Proof: because we desire it) and nothing other than happiness is desirable, as anything else desired is only a means to or part of happiness. Utilitarianism is normally referred to as the law of greatest good for the greatest number of people, which means that an action is only permissible if there was no other action available that could have lead to greater happiness. It also means that an action with bad consequences could be permissible if all the other options were to lead to worse results. Utilitarianism is different than other ethical theories in a way that right and wrong depend on the consequences of actions rather than the actions’ conformity to moral rules. Utilitarianism has some hallmark characteristics:
1. Aggregation: The value of an action is determined by the aggregate affect it has on the happiness. This is
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