Mill's Utilitarianism: Right Or Wrong?

“He who thinks and thinks for himself, will always have a claim to thanks, it is no matter whether it be right or wrong, so as it be right or wrong, so as it be explicit. If it is right, it will serve as a guide to direct, if wrong, as a beacon to warn.” Jeremy Bentham believed that each individual should be able to speak their own opinions whether they were right or wrong as long as they didn’t harm anyone. Bentham was a British philosopher, who was believed to be the founder of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is based on the principle of having ethics towards the morally right action, which would benefit everyone’s life and well-being. Bentham’s utilitarianism influenced a particular son and father, James and John Mill. Mill senior, the

Mill was concerned that individuals became to uniform and lost diversity within society. “Comparatively speaking they now read the same things, go to the same places, have their hopes and fear directed to the same objects, have the same rights and liberties, and the same means of asserting them.” Undoubtedly Mill’s saw society slipping into an assembly line, where everyone was similar and differences between two individuals was difficult to determine. “…they have no tastes or wishes strong enough to incline them to do anything unusual, and they consequently do not understand those who have, and class all such with the wild and interpret whom they are accustomed to look down upon.” According to Mill society was afraid to be different and step outside the box. Society was frightened when they saw differences or someone did something out of the ordinary. This individual was usually pegged as strange by others because everyone was used to be being enclosed in their bubbles. “That so few dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.” Mill urged society to take notice that they were missing out on all the uniqueness that life brings to each individual. “The whole object of Liberty is to argue that we must safeguard these goods, the ultimate goods of individual life, and that we must safeguard them by leaving people the room to experiment and inquire into them.” Mill stressed that individuals should be given the right to diversify and expand without conforming. To be brief, Mill did not want society to lose its diversity aspect because nobody would be happy in a uniform