Utilitarian Theory & Moral Motivation

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 t

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ociety. That is, the internal individual self need not sanction an action (instinctively) in order for external social sanction to be achieved. Therefore pleasure as a moral good, according to Mill, cannot be considered with reference to a permanent pitch of giddy excitement but rather an individual's confidence in secure, stable, and, for Mill, moral and civilized human experience. Individual discontent may sometimes have to be subordinated to social force or integrity. This appears to be why Mill distinguishes between one category of pleasure and another What is there to decide whether a particular pleasure is worth purchasing at the cost of a particular pain, except the feelings and judgment of the experienced? When, therefore, those feelings and judgment declare the pleasures derived from the higher faculties to be preferable in kind, apart from the question of intensity, to those of which the animal nature, disjoined from the higher faculties, is susceptible, they are entitled on this subject to the same regard (11). For Mill, the agency of preference in kind is reason, uniquely available to the human species in the manner that Mill explains it. This is not instinct, remember, for instinct is available to many species, includ

Category: Philosophy - U