The purpose of this research is to examine grounds of moral motivation with reference to Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill. The plan of the research will be to set forth the moral context of Mill's discussion of Utilitarian theory, and then to evaluate the coherence, consistency, and strength of the argument as moral philosophy.
In his introduction, Mill quite directly declares Utilitarianism an exercise in the first principles of moral philosophy. In part, the work is a referendum on and critique of earlier moral philosophy, but to the degree it looks at what constitutes the reality of morality, it touches on ontological as well as epistemological territory. In that sense, Utilitarianism might be characterized as an exercise in moral ontology. To the degree Mill's focus is on the moral implications of the practical consequences of actions, his enterprise seems almost an attempt to reify (i.e., make real and palpable) morality. For the same reason, Mill's moral philosophy is profoundly social; that is, the morality of individual actions impinges on society at large. This is in the background of Sher's summary of Utilitarianism as the view that "we should always perform that act, of those available, which will bring the most happiness, or least unhappiness, to the greatest number of people" (vii). This implies that moral action is potentially an action against individual interest, for it is perfectly possible that individual interest will conflict with the greatest good for the greatest number. More generally, this is morality as society, morality as participation in civil society, and in a broad sense morality as very civilization.
Mill develops these larger issues in terms of whether the source of motivation for moral behavior is internal (coming from individual psychology or instinct) or external (coming from society). Given Sher's summary of the core of utilitarian moral philosophy, it can easily be inferred that Mill rejects...