takes the moral rightness or wrongness to be of an act to be a function of the amount of general happiness and unhappiness that results from it (“general” in the sense that everyone’s happiness is to be taken into account, not just that of the agent and not just people other than the agent).Īnd that, in short, is the basic thrust of Utilitarianism.īut in Philosophy we are rarely content to state the basic thrust of a position instead we want to formulate controversial positions as precisely as possible, so that we can absolutely clear what they do and don’t entail. takes happiness in this sense to be the only thing that is “intrinsically good” (good for its own sake) Ĭ. takes happiness to consist in pleasure and the absence of pain ī. Its impartiality: the happiness concerned is the sum total of happiness for everyone affected by an action.Ī.The moral weight it places on consequences to the exclusion of all else.Two of its most distinctive features are: The theory of rightness/wrongness encapsulated by the GHP is commonly called utilitarianism. In other words, actions are right or wrong, better or worse based on the amount of happiness they produce. The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. Why is the principle called ‘the greatest happiness principle’ and not simply ‘the happiness principle’? The answer has to do with its implications for the rightness and wrongness of actions. Mill’s identification of pleasure and the absence of pain with happiness can be traced back to the Greek hedonists Aristippus and Epicurus, however, Mill was chiefly inspired by Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), who had used a version of the Greatest Happiness Principle in developing arguments for legal and political reform. are desirable either for the pleasure inherent in themselves, or as means to the promotion of pleasure and the prevention of pain. Pleasure, and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends. “By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain by unhappiness pain, and the privation of pleasure.” John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, 1863Īccording to Mill, happiness, thus understood, is the only thing that is good in itself: And what does Mill mean by “happiness”? His answer: Roughly speaking, this is principle that the rightness or wrongness of an act is a entirely function of the happiness and unhappiness produced by it, not just the happiness and unhappiness of the person whose action it is, but the happiness and unhappiness of everyone affected by the action. Mill argues that morality is based on a single principle he calls ‘The Principle of Utility’ or ‘the Greatest Happiness Principle’ (GHP). Focus on Consequences Alone in Defining Right/Wrong Action.Utilitarianism & the Greatest Happiness Principle.
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