a.

JOHN STUART MILL

 INTRODUCTION
o John Stuart Mill, a naturalist, a utilitarian, and a liberal, was born on May 20,
1806, in Pentonville, London, England. He was considered the most
influential English Language Philosopher of the 19th Century. He contributed
to works including logic, epistemology, economics, social and political
philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, religion, and current affairs.
 EDUCATION
o Mill was home-schooled under his strict household and firm father. He started
learning ancient Greek and Latin at a young age, during his teenage years he
studied political economy, legal philosophy, metaphysics, logic, and calculus,
which made his education remarkable, and as the eldest, he was required to
teach his 8 younger siblings.
o Mill worked at East India Company under his father at the age of seventeen.
He works at the company for over 30 years and eventually became chief
examiner of correspondence.
o At the age of twenty, Mill suffered in what he called in his Autobiography,
“Mental Crisis” of 1826, due to the stress he experienced during his education
and rigorous intellectual training that had left him emotionally
underdeveloped and other factors that affected him. As for his recovery, Mill
explored romanticism, poetry (specifically Wordsworth), and a variety of
other European intellectual movements to recover from his depression.
 WIFE
o In 1830, Mill met Harriet Taylor, which eventually became his wife in 1851.
Their relationship was scandalous and platonic, Harriet Taylor was married to
John Taylor before she married John Mill. He and the Taylors made an
agreement wherein Mill can visit Harriet whenever her husband is not present.
o Harriet died in 1858 in travel through France, where she was also buried. The
death of Harriet made Mill inconsolable and spent six months of every
subsequent year in France to be closer to her grave. Harriet was considered
one of the most important people in Mill’s life. She was a major influence on
Mill in the realms of political, ethical, and social thought, but less so in the
areas of logic and political economy, and often acted as his editor and critic.
 MP FOR WESTMINISTER
o In 1865 Mill was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Westminster
for the Liberal Party. He participated in three dramatic events. First, Mill
attempted to amend the Reform Act of 1867 to include suffrage for women.
Second, he headed the Jamaica Committee, which pushed (unsuccessfully) for
the prosecution of Governor Eyre of Jamaica, who had imposed brutal martial
law after an uprising by black farmers protesting poverty and
disenfranchisement. Third, Mill used his influence with the leaders of the
laboring classes to defuse a potentially dangerous confrontation between
government troops and workers who were protesting the defeat of the 1866
Reform Bill. However, he only lasts for one term and was never re-elected.
 DEATH
 o Mill began to spend his remaining life in France with their daughter, Helen
Taylor, and uttered his last words to her in 1873 “You know that I have done
my work”. Mill died In Avignon on May 7, 1873, buried next to his wife.
o Up until today Mill’s writings in ethics and political philosophy such as
Utilitarianism, the subjection of Women, and his Autobiography were often
taught in universities and read by most people throughout the world.
LINK REFERENCES: (MAS DETAILED DITO IF WANT N’YO LIKE OTHER NOTES)
[1] https://stanford.library.sydney.edu.au/archives/fall2020/entries/mill/
[2] https://iep.utm.edu/milljs/
[3] https://thegreatthinkers.org/mill/biography/
[4] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/j/john-stuart-mill.asp {ADDITIONAL INFO}

b. 2 TYPES OF UTILITARIANISM
Act Utilitarianism and Rule Utilitarianism apply actions that should be to create the
best results possible, but they differ in how they do that. According to R.M. Hare, a British
philosopher there are two-level of Utilitarianism, Primary Rule: Intuitive Moral Rule (Rule
Utilitarianism) and Secondary Rule: Critical Level Moral Reasoning (Act Utilitarianism). In
the late 1950s, Richard Brandt drew a contrast between Act Utilitarianism and Rule
Utilitarianism to solve issues.
 ACT UTILITARIANISM (CLASSICAL UTILITARIANISM)
o A person's act is morally right if and only if it produces the best possible
results in that specific situation. In any situation, actions you do should benefit
the greatest good for the greatest number of people. On a case-by-case basis,
actions are objectively right if it promotes happiness to most reach utility.
o Other terms for this type are Extreme and Direct because it is directly
applying the principle of utilitarianism to the evaluation of individual actions.
o EXAMPLE:
[1] One innocent person, without family or friends to worry about, dies to
save Five People who need an organ transplant.
[2] There are Five homeless people you have only enough food for one, you
distributed it equally so everyone is happy. Everyone is little satisfied than
only One person is fully satisfied.
 RULE UTILITARIANISM
o An action would be objectively right, if it actually corresponds to rules that
promote happiness it will require us to observe rules that facilitate happiness.
Rule Utilitarianism has 2-part views: (a) a specific action is morally justified
if it conforms to a justified moral rule and (b) a moral rule is justified if its
inclusion into our moral code would create more utility than other possible
rules (or no rule at all).
o Other terms for this type are Indirect and Restricted because the action will be
considered right if it conforms to a rule that leads to the greatest good that can
also lead to seemingly immoral situations.
o EXAMPLE:
[1] Your friend is hiding from a murderer; you will tell the murderer where
your friend is because lying is wrong.
LINK REFERENCES: (MAS DETAILED DITO IF WANT N’YO LIKE OTHER NOTES)
[1] https://iep.utm.edu/util-a-r/#H2
[2] https://iep.utm.edu/mill-eth/?fbclid=IwAR3e3aqTKLl0APfBy-
HUPLyLLVyMgpWHvdljvRr-UrhKkDPabMe7SdKiNv0#H5
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a739VjqdSI&t=5s {ADDITIONAL INFO}
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1R1X9sV9YQ {ADDITIONAL INFO}
[5] https://philpapers.org/archive/EGGAU.pdf {ADDITIONAL INFO}