John Stuart Mill, Essay Example

John Stuart Mill is a British philosopher born in the 19th century in Pentonville, London. He died at the age of 66. His main interests were political philosophy, economics, Ethics and inductive logic. He was the most influential philosopher in the nineteenth century. His concept of liberty warranted freedom to persons of opposition in state management. He also advocated utilitarianism as developed by Jeremy Bentham. He was a parliamentary member and played a big role in liberal political philosophy. He came up with Falsification as a new method of scientific evaluation.

According to John Stuart Mill, Natural law applies to most aspect of human way of survival; this takes into consideration the ability to establish a moral judgment, the ability to know the difference between right and wrong. It was discovered by the philosophers. It is logical for humans to defend one self and also ones property, that is natural. Natural law takes into consideration God’s law of the land and takes into consideration the human nature and moral view of reality. John Stuart states that pleasures can either be higher and lower pleasure. It is natural that inferior persons are involved in lower pleasures while superior persons enjoy the higher pleasures. It is believed that persons with higher pleasures are the once qualified to critic the relative value of pleasure. Natural law according to Mill is derived from the nature of man and the world at large considering the reasoning of people.

Deontology is a term used to describe a sense of obligation or duty. This is used to check the morality of the action at hand in consideration to the rule of the land. It contrasts with the consequentialism and pragmatic ethics. According to John mill, deontology is shown clearly when they practice altruism; this is when a person puts his/her self at risks to be able to help the other person. In the egoistic versus Altruistic utilitarianism, persons required to make ethical decisions must do so in a fair-minded perspective. This will ensure that the decision arrives at is correct and that all aspects have been considered to arrive at it. When a person is making decision on behave of the community, he is bound to ensure that he/ she minimizes the conflict between his personal ego and the community at large. This rule is much set on the fact that humans are committed to doing well to their maximum. It also checks at motivational behind of do a good deed.

Consequentialism is being able to be responsible to the way of judgment or making a morally right act and having positive results. It is deferent from deontology in the Consequentialism, takes into consideration the outcomes of a certain behavior rather than good or evil in deontology. Mill argues that it is our moral duty to prevent and reduce human suffering, this can either be by ensuring that the greater reason of unhappiness is reduced drastically by ensuring that human are not selfish towards each other. This can be done by ensuring that people are well educated as John refers is as “Mental Cultivation”, learned people are known to share a lot, they are well aware of the fact that intellect is of most important in maintaining happiness amongst persons. Mills continues to say that in order to guard the concern of the persons in the lower pleasure group; strategies must be clearly set out with distinct procedure to ensure that they are well followed. Although John Mill prefers democracy, he also considers the possibility of having persons of the higher pleasure dominating the minority with a strict method of “mob rule” being followed.

In conclusion, Mill discusses the concept of pleasures well and has a clear distinction between the higher and lower pleasures. Additionally, he considers that pleasure and pain are incommensurable.