Quotation
Last reviewed:
“The sole evidence it is possible to produce that anything is desirable is that people do actually desire it.”
John Stuart Mill · Liberalism · Modern · 1863
What does it mean?
The only evidence that anything is desirable, he says, is that people do actually desire it. He is offering the sort of proof he thinks an ultimate principle can have, and he leans on the analogy with visible, which means what is seen. A rival reading, G. E. Moore's and many since, says this confuses desired with desirable, a fact with a value, and that the analogy is a pun. The objection is the standard one, and it is serious.
Did John Stuart Mill really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. Mill's English in the chapter 'Of what sort of proof the principle of utility is susceptible'. He compares visible and desirable, and the comparison is the famous, and famously attacked, step.
Where it comes from
Utilitarianism, chapter 4
Approximate date: 1863.
How to use it
In a policy meeting someone says a benefit is desirable because a survey shows people want it. Mill's sentence seems to agree, and then the work starts: who desires it, under what conditions, and whether the desire is for happiness as he defines it. A survey is not yet chapter 4. It is the sort of fact the chapter thinks matters, and the sort of fact that does not finish the argument.
A mindset reading
The visible/desirable step is where students are taught to catch him. Catching him is part of reading him. Pretending the step is not there, in order to keep a clean utilitarianism, is a different kind of failure.
Understand the philosophy
Chapter 4 is short and it is the book's soft underbelly. Chapter 5, on justice, is where he tries to show that rights and utility do not come apart. If you only remember the fallacy, you have not seen what he thought the proof was for.
- ethics
- knowledge
- happiness
FAQ
What does it mean?
The only evidence that anything is desirable, he says, is that people do actually desire it. He is offering the sort of proof he thinks an ultimate principle can have, and he leans on the analogy with visible, which means what is seen. A rival reading, G. E. Moore's and many since, says this confuses desired with desirable, a fact with a value, and that the analogy is a pun. The objection is the standard one, and it is serious.
Did John Stuart Mill really say this?
Well attested. Mill's English in the chapter 'Of what sort of proof the principle of utility is susceptible'. He compares visible and desirable, and the comparison is the famous, and famously attacked, step.
Which work is it in?
Utilitarianism, chapter 4 Approximate date: 1863.