Mill, John Stuart

Mill and Utilitarianism

Mill would eventually write against Bentham's utilitarianism. Initially, Mill was an ardent supporter of Bentham's utilitarianism, following his father's lead both intellectually and politically. After suffering from mental and emotional exhaustion in his 20s, Mill began reading outside of the positivist writings on which he had been raised. This included both the literature and philosophy of the Romantic movement. It was these writings that would, in part, prompt Mill to reconsider Benthamism.

In Bentham's conceptualization of utilitarianism, one can infer that pleasure is a quantitative variable: what rendered one happy, that is, what was utile, was having more pleasure and less pain. Thus, happiness was merely an algorithm that can be described as aloof. Mill disagreed. For Mill, elements of pleasure inhered a “qualitative component.” What Mill meant by this is that pleasure can be understood in terms of degrees of goodness—some pleasures are better than other pleasures. To this end, pleasures that are considered better should be pursued and preferred more so than lesser pleasures. He famously expounded upon this principle by stating that Socrates dissatisfied was better than a pig that was satisfied.

[Page 592]Mill's qualitative utilitarianism, of course, begs the question: How does one determine which pleasure is better than another pleasure? Mill answers this question in a similar manner to one utilitarians long used to answer a similar question: How does one determine what is good and what is bad? At its core, utilitarianism is a philosophy of ends: actions are judged according to their result. Actions that promote pleasure are good, and actions that promote pain are bad. Pleasure is the fulfillment of desire. According to Mill, therefore, some desires were better than other desires. As to which desires were better than others, Mill, following the general utilitarian lead, falls back on the utility of an action. He says in his book Utilitarianism: “Of two pleasures, if there be one to which all or almost all who have experience of both give a decided preference … that is the more desirable pleasure.” So Socrates, who has experienced more than a pig, is in a better position to judge what is more or less desirable. In this respect, Mill's utilitarianism is an experiential philosophy.

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