Utilitarianism

Chapter-by-chapter summary

Utilitarianism has five chapters. Mill first published it as three magazine articles in 1861 and as a book in 1863. The chapters build on each other, so this guide follows the book's order, splitting the long second chapter in two.

Chapter 1: General Remarks

Mill opens by complaining that after more than two thousand years philosophers still disagree about what makes an act right. He notes that even schools that claim to start from pure reason end up judging real cases by their consequences. Kant is his example: the test of whether everyone could follow a rule only works if you ask what would happen if everyone did. Mill adds that a first principle cannot be proved like a geometry theorem, so he will offer considerations instead. Why it matters: this short chapter sets the task for the whole book, which is to defend the principle of utility openly rather than to sneak it in.

Chapter 2, part 1: What Utilitarianism Is

Here Mill states the creed: actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness and wrong as they tend to produce the opposite. Happiness means pleasure and the absence of pain. To the charge that this is a philosophy fit for pigs, he replies that humans have higher faculties, and anyone who knows both kinds of pleasure will prefer the higher one. The standard is not the agent's own happiness but the happiness of everyone, judged with the strict impartiality of a disinterested observer. Why it matters: this is the heart of the book, and it separates Mill from Bentham, who counted only the amount of pleasure.

Chapter 2, part 2: Objections answered

The rest of the chapter replies to a list of complaints. Happiness is not a realistic aim, say critics. Mill answers that the aim is to reduce suffering and give people a reasonable amount of contentment. Nobody can calculate consequences in advance, say others. Mill answers that humanity has long experience, and that rules such as not stealing work like a sailor's almanac, a guide so that nobody has to work out the course afresh each time. When rules clash, the principle of utility decides between them. Why it matters: the chapter shows that utilitarianism can work with ordinary moral rules instead of replacing them.

Chapter 3: Of the Ultimate Sanction of the Principle of Utility

A sanction is whatever pushes us to follow a moral rule. Mill lists outside pressures, such as the approval of others, and an inside one, the conscience, which is the pain we feel when we break what we believe is our duty. He argues that conscience is learned but not artificial, because it grows from the social feelings of humankind, our natural wish to live in unity with others. Education and law can strengthen that feeling. Why it matters: Mill shows that utilitarianism has an emotional foundation and is not just arithmetic.

Chapter 4: Of What Sort of Proof the Principle of Utility is Susceptible

Mill says ultimate ends cannot be proved by argument, but they can be supported. The only proof that something can be seen is that people see it, and likewise the only proof that something is desirable is that people desire it. Each person desires their own happiness, so the general happiness is good for the group. He then answers the objection that people also desire virtue, money and fame. These, he says, become parts of happiness, not just tools for it. Why it matters: this is the book's most criticised argument, and philosophers still debate whether Mill confuses what is desired with what is worth desiring.

Chapter 5: On the Connection between Justice and Utility

The strongest objection is that justice seems to stand apart from usefulness. Mill lists what we call just: respecting rights, giving people what they deserve, keeping promises, treating people impartially. What they share is a sense that someone has been wronged, rooted in self-defence and sympathy, and made moral when it is aimed at harms society should punish. A right, he says, is a claim that society ought to defend, and the reason it should is general utility. Justice protects the most essential human interests, so its rules bind more strongly than other rules. Why it matters: the book ends by turning its hardest objection into support.

Key people and terms

• John Stuart Mill (1806–1873): the author. He was trained from childhood in Bentham's circle but came to think that his teacher's version of the theory was too narrow, and he wrote this book to repair it.
• Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832): the founder of modern utilitarianism, who held that pleasure and pain are the basis of morals. Mill borrows his central idea but says pleasures differ in quality as well as amount.
• Epicurus: the ancient Greek philosopher whose followers were accused of living like pigs. Mill points out that this is the same insult thrown at utilitarians, and that it misreads what human pleasure includes.
• Immanuel Kant: the German philosopher of duty. Mill argues that Kant's test, that a rule must be one everyone could follow, quietly depends on consequences.
• Socrates: Mill's example of a person who has found higher pleasures. A dissatisfied Socrates, he says, is better off than a satisfied fool.
• Greatest happiness principle: the rule that actions are right as they promote happiness for all affected, with each person's happiness counting equally.
• Higher and lower pleasures: Mill's distinction between pleasures of the mind, feeling and imagination and those of mere sensation, with the higher ones judged more valuable.
• Competent judges: people who have truly experienced both kinds of pleasure. Mill says their preference settles which is worth more.
• Sanctions: the motives that move us to follow a moral rule. They are external, such as social approval, and internal, such as conscience.
• Secondary principles: everyday rules, such as honesty, that sum up long human experience of what promotes happiness. They guide us in practice, with utility as the final test.

Writing about this book

A strong report on Utilitarianism starts with one clear question rather than a retelling. Here are some starting points that do not give away an answer.

• Mill says it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. Is he right? Who decides which pleasures are higher, and could that decision be unfair to people with different tastes?
• Mill's rule counts everyone equally. Test that with a case from your own life or from the news: when does equal counting feel fair, and when does it feel wrong?
• In Chapter 5, justice is explained by usefulness. Do you find that explanation convincing, or does justice seem to stand on its own?
• Compare the claim that happiness is the only thing worth wanting with your own experience. Do you ever want something that you know will not make you happier?

Pick one of these, take a position, and support it with a specific passage from a chapter. Mill's own method works well: state the objection fairly before you answer it. A good report names the strongest argument against your view and replies to it.