Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Method of Citation
- Introduction
- 1 Mill's Life and Philosophical Background
- 2 Mill's Criticism of Alternative Theories
- 3 Qualities of Pleasure
- 4 Was Mill an Act- or Rule-Utilitarian?
- 5 Sanctions and Moral Motivation
- 6 Mill's “Proof” of the Principle of Utility
- 7 Utility and Justice
- Appendix: An Overall View of Mill's Utilitarianism
- Bibliography
- Index
Appendix: An Overall View of Mill's Utilitarianism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Method of Citation
- Introduction
- 1 Mill's Life and Philosophical Background
- 2 Mill's Criticism of Alternative Theories
- 3 Qualities of Pleasure
- 4 Was Mill an Act- or Rule-Utilitarian?
- 5 Sanctions and Moral Motivation
- 6 Mill's “Proof” of the Principle of Utility
- 7 Utility and Justice
- Appendix: An Overall View of Mill's Utilitarianism
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The purpose of this appendix is to give an overall view of Mill's essay entitled Utilitarianism. No attempt will be made to engage in critical discussion of the issues that it raises. This appendix is merely a summary of the structure and the main points of the essay.
The essay has five chapters, the first of which, entitled “General Remarks,” might be regarded as a preface. The second chapter, “What Utilitarianism Is,” presents a succinct formulation of the utilitarian “creed” and then attempts to answer objections to it, objections supposedly based on mistaken interpretations of its meaning. Chapter 3, “Of the Ultimate Sanction of the Principle of Utility,” is a discussion of the sources of motivation for conformity to a morality based on the general happiness. Chapter 4 is Mill's presentation “Of What Sort of Proof the Principle of Utility Is Susceptible.” The final and longest chapter, which Mill had begun writing as a separate essay, is “On the Connexion between Justice and Utility.” This last chapter is in the form of an answer to another objection to utilitarianism, but in this case the objection could be better described as due to an inadequate and incomplete analysis of the idea and sentiment of justice, rather than a mistaken interpretation of utility. Mill's project in the chapter is to show that, when properly understood, justice is consistent with, subordinate to, and an important branch of utility, rather than opposed to it.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- An Introduction to Mill's Utilitarian Ethics , pp. 169 - 194Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003