John Stuart Mill pagină de colorat

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was an English philosopher, economist, civil servant and pioneer feminist who immensely contributed to empiricism and liberal political philosophy. Mill gave a new depth to utilitarianism, an ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham. In the utilitarian society, the actions are justifiable as far as they produce the greatest happiness of the greatest number and diminish its reverse. So, the fundamental principle of morality of utilitarians is Greatest Happiness Principle: make actions to fulfill our desires and produce the greatest good. Mill highlights that a biblical commandment " You shall love your neighbor as yourself " constitutes the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality. Aiming at the improvement of humankind, Mill believed that if we tried to make the nearest approach to this ideal, the world would do better. Mill admitted that along with other moral principles utilitarianism is not a perfect ethical creed, but this is the fault not of a system but of a complicated nature of human affairs.