Chapter Eight: Mill

Key Points
Utilitarianism properly understood, Mill contends, may be
summed up as follows:
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. By happiness, is intended pleasure, and the
absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the
privation of pleasure.

Chapter Eight: Mill

Some critics have argued that the principle of utility is a
swinish doctrine (swinish because, by identifying
happiness with pleasure and unhappiness with pain, it
may promote a life dedicated to vulgar hedonism).
Mill counters this criticism in two ways: first, by observing
that such an accusation supposes human beings to be
capable of no pleasures except those of which swine are
capable; and secondly, by pointing out that not all
pleasures are to be valued equally.
There are clearly, he maintains, higher and lower
pleasures, corresponding to the higher and lower
faculties of the human being.

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Mill states that it is an "unquestionable fact" that, given
equal access to all kinds of pleasures, people will prefer
those that satisfy their higher faculties. A human being
would not choose to become an animal, nor would an
educated person choose to become ignorant.
Thus, although deep thinkers tend to suffer more in life
(because they understand the limitations of the world
better than most people), they would never choose a
lower form of existence, preferring rather to maintain
their dignity as rational creatures. As Mill memorably
states, it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than
a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a
fool satisfied.

Chapter Eight: Mill

Mill then restates the greatest happiness principle: the
utilitarian standard, he avers, is not the agents own
greatest happiness, but the greatest amount of
happiness altogether
Now even if it is the case that a noble character (i.e.,
someone who makes great sacrifices on behalf of
others) may not always be happy, for all his nobleness
(especially if he makes the ultimate sacrifice),
nevertheless there can be no doubt that [he] makes
other people happier, and that the world in general is
immensely a gainer by it.

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Utilitarianism, therefore, can only achieve its ultimate
goal (the greatest happiness of the greatest number) by
the general cultivation of nobleness of character, that is,
through the inculcation of noble habits and mores, even
if each individual were only benefited by the nobleness of
others, and his own, so far as happiness is concerned,
were a sheer deduction from the benefit.
So the principle or standard of all human action is no
less than an existence exempt as far as possible from
pain, and as rich as possible in enjoyments, both in point
of quantity and quality not for one or a few persons,
but for all mankind.
The willingness to sacrifice ones happiness for that of
others is, in Mills eyes, the highest virtue.

Chapter Eight: Mill

Mill disagrees with those who would argue that human
beings are incapable of happiness.
This may be true if by happiness we mean a continuity
of highly pleasurable excitement which, he admits, can
at best last hours or days (with some intermissions),
and is the occasional brilliant flash of enjoyment, not its
permanent and steady flame.
Happiness as Mill understands it consists rather of
moments of such, in an existence made up of few and
transitory pains, many and various pleasures, with a
decided predominance of the active over the passive,
and having as the foundation of the whole, not to expect
more from life than it is capable of bestowing.

Chapter Eight: Mill

Thus happiness seems to require a surplus,
throughout the whole of life, of pleasure over pain, in
which the active pleasures (i.e., those demanding
exertion of the higher faculties) predominate over
the passive pleasures (i.e., those consisting of mere
passive enjoyment of external stimuli), accompanied
by moderate and realistic expectations of life.
Yet it is fully within most peoples capacities to be
happy, Mill claims, if their education fosters the
appropriate habits and values.

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Utilitarian morality refuses to recognize that self-sacrifice
is intrinsically good. Rather, it is good only insofar as it
secures the good of others, either of mankind
collectively, or of individuals within the limits imposed by
the collective interests of mankind.
Mill reminds us that the happiness which forms the
utilitarian standard of what is right in conduct, is not the
agents own happiness, but that of all concerned.
Christs Golden Rule embodies this principle: to do as
one would be done by, and to love ones neighbor as
oneself.

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Through a carefully crafted education system, social
and legal framework, Mill believes human beings
thoughts, opinions, and feelings can be so shaped
and contoured as to give rise to a Utilitarian society
wherein each member identifies his own happiness
with that of the whole, a society in which the
distinction between mine and yours, public and
private, breaks down entirely, thereby producing a
harmonious collectivity governed not by callow
selfishness, but rather by an almost reflexive
concern for ones fellow man.

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Mill addresses the issue of sanctions, or the inherent
consequences for those who break a set of rules. He
argues that the principle of utility has two types of
sanctions, external and internal.
External sanctions may take the form of peer pressure,
that is, the desire for praise and approval and the fear of
blame or disapproval, as well as the fear of Gods wrath.
Internal sanctions, on the other hand, derive from one's
conscience, or ones feeling for humanity, and provide
the ultimate sanction for utilitarian morality. The
conscience consists of negative, uncomfortable feelings
that arise whenever one violates duty.

Chapter Eight: Mill

In conclusion, Mill argues that utilitarianism has its
origins in the social nature of human beings, in their
desire to be in harmony with their fellow man, and in
their aversion toward the disapproval of their peers and
their God.
Moreover, society ought to cultivate this natural
sentiment through education and good laws. Although
Mill admits that the feeling for humanity is often
overshadowed by selfish feelings, for those who have it,
it does take on the character and legitimacy of a natural
sentiment.
The utility principles sanctions are therefore based on
the internal sanction of human conscience, which it is the
duty of laws and education to cultivate.