Utilitarianism

John Stuart Mill's classic philosophical defense of utilitarianism in ethics. In it, he formulates a single ethical principle from which he says all utilitarian ethical principles are derived: "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. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure." In fact, notes Mill, Utilitarianism is actually a "standard of morality" which uses happiness of the greater number of people as its ultimate goal. Enormously influential, Mill's work is essential in understanding modern Progressivist thought. Newly designed and typeset in a 6-by-9-inch format.