Utilitarianism
John Stuart Mill
Mill published it as three articles in Fraser's Magazine in 1861 and as a book two years later. He breaks with Bentham by arguing that pleasures differ in kind as well as in quantity, which is where the line about Socrates dissatisfied comes from. This edition is an Oxford collection carrying Utilitarianism alongside On Liberty and other essays rather than the essay on its own.
Why you should read this
This is Mill's attempt to defend utilitarian ethics against the charge that it reduces morality to base pleasure-seeking, by distinguishing higher and lower pleasures and grounding the theory in something closer to human flourishing. Best for readers who want utilitarianism argued from first principles rather than summarized secondhand.
- Field
- Philosophy
- Form
- Non-fiction
- Published
- 1863
- Themes
- EthicsPhilosophy
