How Does John Stuart Mill Define Happiness

Unlike deontology, whose focal point is duty, consequentialism focuses on the consequences of an action; hence the name consequentialism. John Stuart Mill’s approach to ethical philosophy, Utilitarianism, is consequentialist and bases morality out of the consequence of an action. To further understand Utilitarianism, there are certain aspects that need to be addressed. Such as Mill’s definition of happiness, the greatest happiness principle, the problem of tyranny of the majority, paternalism, and the importance placed of liberty. The previously mentioned concepts will be addressed in that order.

First, Mill’s concept of happiness is a crucial foundation to understanding Utilitarianism. According to Mill, happiness (or utility), is the maximization of pleasure and the minimization of pain (Mill 5). Mill understood that this concept of happiness or utility, could easily be misunderstood or misinterpreted; but his main purpose was to allow individuals to understand that ‘pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends’ (5). This introduces the greatest happiness principle; an act is moral only if it maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain (5). If the act induces more pain than it does pleasure, the act is immoral.

Mill understood this especially when addressing the problem of the tyranny of the majority, now that the happiness of many over the pain of a few might lead to the subjugation of small groups of people by ones that happen to be large in size (Mill, On Liberty 3). Due to this, Mill introduces the harm principle, where it is only justifiable to interfere with another individual’s liberty if it is to avoid that individual from harming others (Wilson). No individual can decide what one prefers better than one’s self; Mill is very adamant about this whether it be in regard to orders made by the tyrannical many or paternal