PHIL 2010H Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Mental Disorder, Psychopathy, John Stuart Mill
3 May 2017
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Document Summary
Mill is all about the consequences, especially about the consequences that one intends to create. Argument: happiness is the sole, ultimate criterion of morality. It is a psychological fact that their own happiness is desired by each person, and so the general happiness is collectively desired by the aggregate of all persons. So happiness is one of the ends of human action and thus one criterion of morality. But many other things are desired--- for example, virtue, money, power, fame--- so these other things are also ends of human action. However, these other things start out being desired only as means for attaining happiness, not for their own sake. As an individual becomes more and more habituated to using them as means for attaining happiness they become a principal ingredient of the individual"s conception of happiness. that is, they become parts of happiness for that individual.
