Study Questions for Mill, Utilitarianism, pp.21-40

1. Chapter 2 continues with still more objections and replies. How does Mill answer the charge that utilitarianism is a godless doctrine? (Pp.21-22)

2. How does he answer the charge that utilitarianism encourages people to do what is expedient, instead of acting on principle? (Does this objection remind you of anyone we’ve read lately?) (Pp.22-23)

3. Notice Mill’s discussion of lying on p.22. How is his view different from Kant’s?

4. How does Mill respond to the objection that his doctrine requires us to enter into impossibly lengthy calculations before we act? (Pp.23-24) Does his answer here show that he is a ‘rule-utilitarian’ and not an ‘act-utilitarian’? (See Norman, p.57 for a definition. Norman discusses this question on pp.100-101.)

5. Note that Mill makes an important claim for his utilitarian principle on p.25: that it gives us a standard for deciding between conflicting moral obligations. You may remember that this was a problem for Kant’s ethics. Do you think Mill’s solution is a good one?

6. In Chapter III Mill develops his ideas about the psychology of morals: What motives do people have for doing what is right? How do those motives have any force for us? His main answer comes on p.28. What is it?

7. How does Mill answer the question, “Is morality natural?” (P.30)

8. What is the “natural basis of sentiment for utilitarian morality”? That is, what natural human feelings does utilitarianism appeal to? (Pp.30-33)

9. Try to understand and assess the ‘proof’ Mill offers in Chapter IV.