1. At the beginning of Chapter II, Mill mentions
an "ignorant blunder" -- what is the blunder?
2. What, according to the 'greatest happiness principle',
is the connection between right and wrong on the one hand, and good and
bad on the other?
3. What, according to the 'greatest happiness principle',
is the connection between good and bad, on the one hand, and pleasure and
pain on the other?
4. Whose happiness is relevant, according to Mill,
when it comes to whether your actions are right?
5. What is the Epicurean response to those who charge
that utilitarianism is "...a doctrine worthy only of swine"?
6. Mill claims that "It is quite compatible with
the principle of utility to recognize the fact that some kinds of pleasure
are more desirable and more valuable than others." Many people think he
is wrong about this. What might the problem be? Think of this question
as posing a challenge: show that utilitarianism cannot consistently acknowledge
that pleasures vary in quality as well as quantity.
7. Why and under what conditions should we think
the fact that competent judges prefer one pleasure to another shows the
two pleasures differ in quality? Who count as competent judges?
8. According to Mill, "It is better to be a human
being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied
than a fool satisfied." Is he right? Why does he bring it up?
9. What is Mill's estimation of the hero and the
10. Mill warns that one should not "confound the
rule of action with the motive of it." What is the distinction and why
is it important?
11. Is Mill right that the moral quality of an action
does not depend on the motive for which it is done?
12. IMPORTANT QUESTION -- What is Mill's response
to the charge that utilitarianism is a godless doctrine?
13. IMPORTANT QUESTION -- What, according to Mill,
is the connection between the 'greatest happiness principle' and other
1. Why is the 'greatest happiness principle'
not susceptible of ordinary proof?
2. What, if anything, is wrong with the argument
Mill offers for thinking the general happiness is desirable?
3. Suppose it is true that each person desires
his or her own happiness -- why would that be evidence that the general
happiness is desirable?
4. Pay attention to the link between happiness
and the desirability of virtue in and of itself.
5. What proof does Mill offer for desirability
6. What's the point of Mill's discussion of money?
7. Is everything desired for its own sake desired
as part of happiness?
8. How does Mill argue against the view that happiness
is not the only thing desirable?
9. What role, according to Mill, does habit play
in separating the will from desire?
10. IMPORTANT QUESTION -- According to Mill, "happiness
is desirable, and the only thing desirable, as an end". This claim breaks
neatly into two that are importantly different: (i) happiness is desirable
as an end and (ii) happiness is the only thing desirable as an end.
Mill offers arguments for each of these claims. His argument for the first
claim is notorious (perhaps unjustifiably) as a bad argument. What is the
argument and what is suspicious about it? Notice, by the way, that the
conclusion Mill hopes to establish with this first argument is fairly uncontroversial
-- how many people, after all, doubt that happiness is at least among the
things that are good? His argument for the second claim, in contrast, is
mobilized to defend a far more controversial claim. What is the argument
for the second claim? (Be careful to identify in detail its structure).