John Stuart Mill

1. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

2. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) • John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was the son of James Mill, a friend of Bentham’s • He was a proponent of utilitarianism, an ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham, although his conception of it was very different from Bentham's. • He was a British philosopher and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control.

3. John Stuart Mill’s Adjustments to Utilitarianism • Mill argues that we must consider the quality of the happiness, not merely the quantity. -For example some might find happiness with a pitcher of beer and a pizza. Others may find happiness watching a fine Shakespearean play. The quality of happiness is greater with the latter.

4. Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill’s • He responded to these objections and gave us the form of Utilitarianism that, in its fundamentals, is the same moral theory that so many philosophers and economists still endorse today. • Utilitarianism is a kind of consequentialism, because we evaluate the morality of actions on the basis of their probable outcomes of consequence.

5. Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill’s • For the this reason utilitarianism is also what we call a teleological theory. • Coming from Greek word telos, meaning purpose or end, teleology refer to the notion that some thing and processes are best thus they argue that the good (moral) life for humans is the happy life.

6. Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill’s • Utilitarianism is probably the most popular moral theory of the last hundred years. It is widely used by economists, because one easy way of measuring utility is by assigning dollar signs to outcomes.