Utilitarianism: A Quick Read edition

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John Stuart Mill's book "Utilitarianism" is a classic exposition and defense of utilitarianism in ethics. The essay first appeared as a series of three books published in Fraser's Magazine in 1861. Mill's aim in the book is to explain what utilitarianism is, to show why it is the best theory of ethics, and to defend it against a wide range of criticisms and misunderstandings. Mill believed that happiness (or pleasure) was the only thing humans do and should desire for its own sake. The goal of the ethical life is to maximize happiness. Mill tried to develop a more refined form of utilitarianism that would harmonize better with ordinary morality and highlight the importance in the ethical life of intellectual pleasures, self-development, high ideals of character, and conventional moral rules. Mill formulates a single ethical principle, the principle of utility or greatest-happiness principle, from which he says all utilitarian ethical principles are derived. Mill appreciates the force of the objection that utilitarianism might sometimes license acts of flagrant injustice. Mill's Utilitarianism remains "the most famous defense of the utilitarian view ever written" and is still widely assigned in university ethics courses around the world.