Quotation
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“The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.”
John Stuart Mill · Liberalism · Modern · 1863
What does it mean?
Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse. That is the creed, Utility or the Greatest Happiness Principle, in his own words. A rival reading stops here and calls him Bentham. The same chapter then argues that pleasures differ in quality, which is where he leaves the earlier doctrine. Another rival says 'in proportion' is a fantasy of measurement. He thinks tendencies can be compared well enough for practice, and he spends the book on the objections. The sentence is the foundation he accepts.
Did John Stuart Mill really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. Mill's own statement of the creed at the opening of chapter 2. Happiness is pleasure and the absence of pain, as he goes on to say. The qualitative distinction, the pig and Socrates, is his revision of the creed and comes later in the same chapter.
Where it comes from
Utilitarianism, chapter 2
Approximate date: 1863.
How to use it
A charity trustee in Oxford chooses the programme that produces more happiness and is accused of being a calculator. The creed is a calculator of a kind. The accusation becomes interesting when the happiness is of different qualities, which is his own next move, or when someone is used as a means in a way chapter 5's justice will have to face. The opening sentence does not answer those. It tells you the test he starts from.
A mindset reading
Quote this and stop, and you have missed the revision that makes the book his. Quote only the pig, and you have missed the creed the pig is defending. The two sentences are a pair.
Understand the philosophy
Chapter 2 answers the charges that utilitarianism is swine morality, godless, and cold. The definition is the first move. The qualitative hedonism is the second. Both are Mill. Neither is a postcard.
- ethics
- happiness
- justice
FAQ
What does it mean?
Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse. That is the creed, Utility or the Greatest Happiness Principle, in his own words. A rival reading stops here and calls him Bentham. The same chapter then argues that pleasures differ in quality, which is where he leaves the earlier doctrine. Another rival says 'in proportion' is a fantasy of measurement. He thinks tendencies can be compared well enough for practice, and he spends the book on the objections. The sentence is the foundation he accepts.
Did John Stuart Mill really say this?
Well attested. Mill's own statement of the creed at the opening of chapter 2. Happiness is pleasure and the absence of pain, as he goes on to say. The qualitative distinction, the pig and Socrates, is his revision of the creed and comes later in the same chapter.
Which work is it in?
Utilitarianism, chapter 2 Approximate date: 1863.