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  1. English philosopher, economist, and exponent of utilitarianism

    John Stuart Mill (born May 20, 1806, London, England—died May 8, 1873, Avignon, France) was an English philosopher, economist, and exponent of utilitarianism. He was prominent as a publicist in the reforming age of the 19th century, and remains of lasting interest as a logician and an ethical theorist.
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    Mill's major contribution to utilitarianism is his argument for the qualitative separation of pleasures. Bentham treats all forms of happiness as equal, whereas Mill argues that intellectual and moral pleasures ( higher pleasures) are superior to more physical forms of pleasure ( lower pleasures ).
    As with all of Mill’s practical philosophy, the argument for this claim is utilitarian. It is proper to state that I forego any advantage which could be derived to my argument from the idea of abstract right, as a thing independent of utility. ( Liberty, XVIII: 224)
    While Mill does say that each person has an ultimate desire for her own happiness, he does not say that this is each person’s only ultimate desire. Indeed, in the second half of the proof he allows that some agents have a disinterested concern for virtue and that they care about virtue for its own sake (IV 4–5).
    While Mill is not a standard act utilitarian or rule utilitarian, he is a minimizing utilitarian, which "affirms that it would be desirable to maximize happiness for the greatest number, but not that we are morally required to do so".
  3. John Stuart Mill | Biography, Philosophy, Utilitarianism, On Liberty ...

  4. John Stuart Mill - Wikipedia

  5. Mill’s Moral and Political Philosophy - Stanford Encyclopedia of ...

  6. Utilitarianism: Summary | SparkNotes

  7. Mill, John Stuart | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

    WEBJohn Stuart Mill (1806-1873) profoundly influenced the shape of nineteenth century British thought and political discourse. His substantial corpus of works includes texts in logic, epistemology, economics, social and …

  8. On Liberty: Full Work Summary | SparkNotes

  9. Mill, John Stuart: Ethics | Internet Encyclopedia of …

    WEBThe ethical theory of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) is most extensively articulated in his classical text Utilitarianism (1861). Its goal is to justify the utilitarian principle as the foundation of morals. This principle says …

  10. John Stuart Mill - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

  11. John Stuart Mill | Utilitarianism.net