John Stuart Mill on Maximizing Happiness

When asking how we should live our own lives, it's easy to get lost in ourselves—how our lives affect us, how we feel about our lives, how our lives impact our close loved ones. But utilitarianism as articulated by John Stuart Mill would challenge us to live with a broader view of who our lives should benefit:

[.alt-blockquote]For [the] standard [of human conduct] is not the agent's own greatest happiness, but the greatest amount of happiness altogether; and if it may possibly be doubted whether a noble character is always the happier for its nobleness, there can be no doubt that it makes other people happier, and that the world in general is immensely a gainer by it.[.alt-blockquote]

[.alt-blockquote-attribution]John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, 42[.alt-blockquote-attribution]

Utilitarians like John Stuart Mill believe in the greatest happiness principle. That is, instead of just focusing on your own wellbeing, they believe you should try to maximize the total amount of happiness in the world. By this logic, although your happiness matters, it only matters in proportion to the happiness in the world at large. Making this calculation is essential for the utilitarian vision of a life led well.

Questions

• How far beyond yourself does your responsibility for others' happiness extend? Do you hope to better just yourself, your friends and family, your community, or beyond?
• In general do you think others' happiness is a primary consideration in your decision making process? If not, how would your life change if it was?
• Would focusing on the total amount of happiness altogether increase your own personal happiness or threaten to take away from it? Why or why not?
• Can you think of a situation where you would feel morally obligated to disappoint large numbers of people? How might the utilitarian principle above fit into this decision—or not?

Context

• John Stuart Mill's On Liberty and Other Essays‍
• Chapter 6: "How should we live?" in Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most

Pairs Well With

• Debatable: some Buddhist conceptions of suffering and how to overcome it
• Cost/benefit analysis

Possible Harmful Interactions

• Strong affirmation of the sanctity and dignity of life
• Wilde's high evaluation of sorrow
• An “ethic of authenticity” that sees being true to yourself as a primary responsibility