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CHAPTER 12
THE UTILITARIAN: JOHN STUART MILL
Chapter 12 Key Concepts
Hedonism is the general term for any philosophy that
says that pleasure is identical with good, and pain is identical
with evil. Hedonists stress either the pursuit of pleasure or the
avoidance of pain.
The manufacturing techniques that ushered in the
Industrial Revolution produced a new class of working poor
forced to live in crowded urban tenements clustered around
plants and factories. In Britain, a reform movement arose to
improve working conditions and the overall quality of life for
all citizens.
Jeremy Bentham resurrected hedonism, adding a social
component. He reasoned that if pleasure is good, more
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Known today as simple utilitarianism, Bentham s
philosophy was an attempt to avoid the errors of irrelevant
metaphysical theories by basing moral and social policies on
experience and scientific principles.
Bentham s hedonic calculus was a crude method of
reducing issues to simple calculation of units of pleasure
versus units of pain.
Simple utilitarianism is based on psychological egoism,
the belief that each of us is interested chiefly in our own
John Stuart Mill coined the term utilitarianism and
refined Bentham s principle of utility by distinguishing
Mill discovered an ingenious empirical method for
settling disputes concerning the quality of competing
Mill disagreed with Bentham s insistence that all motives
are egoistic and based his refined utilitarianism on the social
SOCCIO ARCHETYPES OF WISDOM
Mill argued that lack of altruistic feelings and ignorance of
the higher pleasures were products of poor education and
According to Mill, selfishness and lack of mental
cultivation are the chief causes of unhappiness, and both can
be cured with a proper education.
Chapter 12 Teaching Tips
1. Analyze some ramifications of overemphasis on motives
and duties to set the stage for Bentham s attempt to produce
2. Discuss current struggles with overpopulation, poor
3. Display the seven elements of the hedonic calculus in class
4. Discuss the moral status of animals according to
utilitarian considerations. Is a capacity for suffering a
sufficient condition for moral rights? If so, how should/can
5. Ask students to discuss Mill s description of his education
(pages 346 347) and compare it to their own educations. Have
them identify advantages and disadvantages of each
approach. Do they find that, so far, their educations have
6. The issue of the relative qualities of pleasures is always
controversial. Talk about the difference between having the
right to express an opinion and having an opinion worth
expressing. Do we have a right to have our opinions
respected?
7. Play devil s advocate and argue that all bored students are
8. Have students (either individually or collectively)
9. Compare the poverty that resulted from the Industrial
10. Use the For Deeper Consideration questions on page 356
as the jumping-off point for a discussion of Mill s distinction