Justice What's the right thing to do

Prévia do material em texto

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Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? 
By 
Michael Sandel 
(Reading Material) 
 
 
Glossary 
 
1. The Queen vs Dudley and Stephens (1884) (The Lifeboat Case) 2 
2. Jeremy Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation (1780) 7 
3. J.S. Mill, Utilitarianism (1863) 13 
4. John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1690) 48 
5. In the Matter of Baby “M” (1988) 94 
6. Immanuel Kant, Groundwork for Metaphysics of Morals (1785) 97 
7. Aristotle, The Politics 138 
8. Hopwood v. State (1996) 162 
9. Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) 167 
10. PGA Tour, Inc. v. Marting (2000) 174 
11. Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health (2003) 179 
 
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The Queen vs Dudley and Stephens (1884) (The Lifeboat Case) 
 
A brief overview of the case: Suppose you find yourself 
in a situation in which killing an innocent person is the only way to prevent many innocent people from dying. What’s 
the right thing to do? This question arose in The Queen v. Dudley and Stephens (1884), a famous English law case 
involving four men stranded in a lifeboat without food or water. How should we judge the action of Dudley and 
Stephens? Was it morally justified or morally wrong? 
 
The Queen v. Dudley and Stephens 
14 Queens Bench Division 273 (1884) 
Criminal Law–Murder–Killing and eating Flesh of Human Body under Pressure of Hunger–”Necessity”–Special 
Verdict–Certiorari–Offence on High Seas–Jurisdiction of High Court. 
 
A man who, in order to escape death from hunger, kills another for the purpose of eating his flesh, is guilty of murder; 
although at the time of the act he is in such circumstances that he believes and has reasonable ground for believing 
that it affords the only chance of preserving his life. 
 
At the trial of an indictment for murder it appeared, upon a special verdict, that the prisoners D. and S., seamen, and 
the deceased, a boy between seventeen and eighteen, were cast away in a storm on the high seas, and compelled to 
put into an open boat; that the boat was drifting on the ocean, and was probably more than 1000 miles from land; that 
on the eighteenth day, when they had been seven days without food and five without water, D. proposed to S. that lots 
should be cast who should be put to death to save the rest, and that they afterwards thought it would be better to kill 
the boy that their lives should be saved; that on the twentieth day D., with the assent of S., killed the boy, and both D. 
and S. fed on his flesh for four days; that at the time of the act there was no sail in sight nor any reasonable prospect 
of relief; that under these circumstances there appeared to the prisoners every probability that unless they then or 
very soon fed upon the boy, or one of themselves, they would die of starvation: 
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Held, that upon these facts, there was no proof of any such necessity as could justify the prisoners in killing the boy, 
and that they were guilty of murder. 
 
INDICTMENT for the murder of Richard Parker on the high seas within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty: 
At the trial before Huddleston, B., at the Devon and Cornwall Winter Assizes, November 7, 1884, the jury, at the 
suggestion of the learned judge, found the facts of the case in a special verdict which stated “that on July 5, 1884, the 
prisoners, Thomas Dudley and Edward Stephens, with one Brooks, all able-bodied English seamen, and the 
deceased also an English boy, between seventeen and eighteen years of age, the crew of an English yacht, a 
registered English vessel, were cast away in a storm on the high seas 1600 miles from the Cape of Good Hope, and 
were compelled to put into an open boat belonging to the said yacht. That in this boat they had no supply of water and 
no supply of food, except two 1 lb. tins of turnips, and for three days they had nothing else to subsist upon. That on 
the fourth day they caught a small [p. 274] turtle, upon which they subsisted for a few days, and this was the only food 
they had up to the twentieth day when the act now in question was committed. That on the twelfth day the turtle were 
entirely consumed, and for the next eight days they had nothing to eat. That they had no fresh water, except such rain 
as they from time to time caught in their oilskin capes. That the boat was drifting on the ocean, and was probably 
more than 1000 miles away from land. That on the eighteenth day, when they had been seven days without food and 
five without water, the prisoners spoke to Brooks as to what should be done if no succour came, and suggested that 
some one should be sacrificed to save the rest, but Brooks dissented, and the boy, to whom they were understood to 
refer, was not consulted. That on the 24th of July, the day before the act now in question, the prisoner Dudley 
proposed to Stephens and Brooks that lots should be cast who should be put to death to save the rest, but Brooks 
refused consent, and it was not put to the boy, and in point of fact there was no drawing of lots. That on that day the 
prisoners spoke of their having families, and suggested it would be better to kill the boy that their lives should be 
saved, and Dudley proposed that if there was no vessel in sight by the morrow morning the boy should be killed. That 
next day, the 25th of July, no vessel appearing, Dudley told Brooks that he had better go and have a sleep, and made 
signs to Stephens and Brooks that the boy had better be killed. The prisoner Stephens agreed to the act, but Brooks 
dissented from it. That the boy was then lying at the bottom of the boat quite helpless, and extremely weakened by 
famine and by drinking sea water, and unable to make any resistance, nor did he ever assent to his being killed. The 
prisoner Dudley offered a prayer asking forgiveness for them all if either of them should be tempted to commit a rash 
act, and that their souls might be saved. That Dudley, with the assent of Stephens, went to the boy, and telling him 
that his time was come, put a knife into his throat and killed him then and there; that the three men fed upon the body 
and blood of the boy for four days; that on the fourth day after the act had been committed the boat was picked up by 
a passing vessel, and the prisoners were rescued, still alive, but in the lowest state of prostration. That they were 
carried to the [p. 275] port of Falmouth, and committed for trial at Exeter. That if the men had not fed upon the body of 
the boy they would probably not have survived to be so picked up and rescued, but would within the four days have 
died of famine. That the boy, being in a much weaker condition, was likely to have died before them. That at the time 
of the act in question there was no sail in sight, nor any reasonable prospect of relief. That under these 
circumstances there appeared to the prisoners every probability that unless they then fed or very soon fed upon the 
boy or one of themselves they would die of starvation. That there was no appreciable chance of saving life except by 
killing some one for the others to eat. That assuming any necessity to kill anybody, there was no greater necessity for 
killing the boy than any of the other three men. But whether upon the whole matter by the jurors found the killing of 
Richard Parker by Dudley and Stephens be felony and murder the jurors are ignorant, and pray the advice of the 
Court thereupon, and if upon the whole matter the Court shall be of opinion that the killing of Richard Parker be felony 
and murder, then the jurors say that Dudley and Stephens were each guilty of felony and murder as alleged in the 
indictment.” 
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The learned judge then adjourned the assizes until the 25th of November at the Royal Courts of Justice. On the 
applicationof the Crown they were again adjourned to the 4th of December, and the case ordered to be argued before 
a Court consisting of five judges. 
Dec. 4. … 
Sir H. James, A.G. (A. Charles, Q.C., C. Mathews and Dankwerts with him), appeared for the Crown. 
With regard to the substantial question in the case–whether the prisoners in killing Parker were guilty of murder–the 
law is that where a private person acting upon his own judgment takes the life of a fellow creature, his act can only be 
justified on the ground of self-defence–self-defence against the acts of the person whose life is taken. This principle 
has been extended to include the case of a man killing another to prevent him from committing some great crime upon 
a third person. But the principle has no application to this case, for the prisoners were not protecting themselves 
against any act of Parker. If he had had food in his possession and they had taken it from him, they would have been 
guilty of theft; and if they killed him to obtain this food, they would have been guilty of murder. … 
A. Collins, Q.C., for the prisoners. 
The facts found on the special verdict shew that the prisoners were not guilty of murder, at the time when they killed 
Parker but killed him under the pressure of necessity. Necessity will excuse an act which would otherwise be a 
crime. Stephen, Digest of Criminal Law, art. 32, Necessity. The law as to compulsion by necessity is further 
explained in Stephen’s History of the Criminal Law, vol. ii., p. 108, and an opinion is expressed that in the case often 
put by casuists, of two drowning men on a plank large enough to support one only, and one thrusting the other off, the 
survivor could not be subjected to legal punishment. In the American case of The United States v. Holmes, the 
proposition that a passenger on board a vessel may be thrown overboard to save the others is sanctioned. The law 
as to inevitable necessity is fully considered [p. 278] in Russell on Crimes, vol. i. p. 847, and there are passages 
relating it in Bracton, vol. ii. p. 277; Hale’s Pleas of the Crown, p. 54 and c. 40; East’s Pleas of the Crown, p. 221, 
citing Dalton, c. 98, “Homicide of Necessity,” and several cases . . . . Lord Bacon, Bac. Max., Reg. 5, gives the 
instance of two shipwrecked persons clinging to the same plank and one of them thrusting the other from it, finding 
that it will not support both, and says that this homicide is excusable through unavoidable necessity and upon the 
great universal principle of self-preservation, which prompts every man to save his own life in preference to that of 
another where one of them must inevitably perish. It is true that Hale’s Pleas of the Crown, p. 54, states distinctly that 
hunger is no excuse for theft, but that is on the ground that there can be no such extreme necessity in this country. In 
the present case the prisoners were in circumstances where no assistance could be given. The essence of the crime 
of murder is intention, and here the intention of the prisoners was only to preserve their lives. … 
Dec. 9. 
The judgment of the Court (Lord Coleridge, C.J., Grove and Denman, JJ., Pollock and Huddleston, B-B.) was 
delivered by LORD COLERIDGE, C.J. 
The two prisoners, Thomas Dudley and Edwin Stephens, were indicted for the murder of Richard Parker on the high 
seas on the 25th of July in the present year. They were tried before my Brother Huddleston at Exeter on the 6th of 
November, and under the direction of my learned Brother, the jury returned a special verdict, the legal effect of which 
has been argued before us, and on which we are now to pronounce judgment. 
The special verdict as, after certain objections by Mr. Collins to which the Attorney General yielded, it is finally settled 
before us is as follows. (His Lordship read the special verdict as above set out.) From these facts, stated with the cold 
precision of a special verdict, it appears sufficiently that the prisoners were subject to terrible temptation, to sufferings 
which might break down the bodily power of the strongest man and try the conscience of the best. Other details yet 
more harrowing, facts still more loathsome and appalling, were presented to the jury, and are to be found recorded in 
my learned Brother’s notes. But nevertheless this is clear, that the prisoners put to death a weak and unoffending boy 
upon the chance of preserving their own lives by feeding upon his flesh and blood after he was killed, and with the 
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certainty of depriving him of any possible chance of survival. The verdict finds in terms that “if the men had not fed 
upon the body of the boy they would probably not have survived,” and that, “the boy being in a much weaker condition 
was likely to have died before them.” They might possibly have been picked up next day by a passing ship; they 
might possibly not have been picked up at all; in either case it is obvious that the killing of the boy would have been an 
unnecessary and profitless act. It is found by the verdict that the boy was incapable of resistance, and, in fact, made 
none; and it is not even suggested that his death was due to any violence on his part attempted against, or even so 
much as feared by, those who killed him. Under these circumstances the jury say that they are ignorant whether those 
who killed him were guilty of murder, and have referred it to this Court to [p. 280] determine what is the legal 
consequence which follows from the facts which they have found. 
There remains to be considered the real question in the case – whether killing under the circumstances set forth in the 
verdict be or be not murder. The contention that it could be anything else was, to the minds of us all, both new and 
strange, and we stopped the Attorney General in his negative argument in order that we might hear what could be 
said in support of a proposition which appeared to us to be at once dangerous, immoral, and opposed to all legal 
principle and analogy. All, no doubt, that can be said has been urged before us, and we are now to consider and 
determine what it amounts to. First it is said that it follows from various definitions of murder in books of authority, 
which definitions imply, if they do not state, the doctrine, that in order to save your own life you may lawfully take away 
the life of another, when that other is neither attempting nor threatening yours, nor is guilty of any illegal act whatever 
towards you or any one else. But if these definitions be looked at they will not be found to sustain this contention. … 
Now, except for the purpose of testing how far the conservation of a man’s own life is in all cases and under all 
circumstances an absolute, unqualified, and paramount duty, we exclude from our consideration all the incidents of 
war. We are dealing with a case of private homicide, not one imposed upon men in the service of their Sovereign and 
in the defence of their country. Now it is admitted that the deliberate killing of this unoffending and unresisting boy 
was clearly murder, unless the killing can be [p. 287] justified by some well-recognised excuse admitted by the law. It 
is further admitted that there was in this case no such excuse, unless the killing was justified by what has been called 
“necessity.” But the temptation to the act which existed here was not what the law has ever called necessity. Nor is 
this to be regretted. Though law and morality are not the same, and many things may be immoral which are not 
necessarily illegal, yet the absolute divorce of law from morality would be of fatal consequence; and such divorce 
would follow if the temptation to murder in this case were to be held by law an absolute defence of it. It is not so. To 
preserve one’s life is generallyspeaking a duty, but it may be the plainest and the highest duty to sacrifice it. War is 
full of instances in which it is a man’s duty not to live, but to die. The duty, in case of shipwreck, of a captain to his 
crew, of the crew to the passengers, of soldiers to women and children, as in the noble case of the Birkenhead; these 
duties impose on men the moral necessity, not of the preservations but of the sacrifice of their lives for others, from 
which in no country, least of all, it is to be hoped, in England, will men ever shrink as indeed, they have not shrunk. It 
is not correct, therefore, to say that there is any absolute or unqualified necessity to preserve one’s life. “Necesse est 
ut eam, non ut vivam,” is a saying of a Roman officer quoted by Lord Bacon himself with high eulogy in the very 
chapter on necessity to which so much reference has been made. It would be a very easy and cheap display of 
commonplace learning to quote from Greek and Latin authors, from Horace, from Juvenal, from Cicero, from 
Euripides, passage after passages, in which the duty of dying for others has been laid down in glowing and emphatic 
language as resulting from the principles of heathen ethics; it is enough in a Christian country to remind ourselves of 
the Great Example whom we profess to follow. It is not needful to point out the awful danger of admitting the principle 
which has been contended for. Who is to be the judge of this sort of necessity? By what measure is the comparative 
value of lives to be measured? Is it to be strength, or intellect, or what ? It is plain that the principle leaves to him who 
is to profit by it to determine the necessity which will justify him in deliberately taking another’s life to save his own. In 
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this case the weakest, the youngest, the most unresisting, was chosen. Was it more [p. 288] necessary to kill him 
than one of the grown men? The answer must be “No” - 
“So spake the Fiend, and with necessity, 
The tyrant’s plea, excused his devilish deeds.” 
It is not suggested that in this particular case the deeds were devilish, but it is quite plain that such a principle once 
admitted might be made the legal cloak for unbridled passion and atrocious crime. There is no safe path for judges to 
tread but to ascertain the law to the best of their ability and to declare it according to their judgment; and if in any case 
the law appears to be too severe on individuals, to leave it to the Sovereign to exercise that prerogative of mercy 
which the Constitution has intrusted to the hands fittest to dispense it. 
It must not be supposed that in refusing to admit temptation to be an excuse for crime it is forgotten how terrible the 
temptation was; how awful the suffering; how hard in such trials to keep the judgment straight and the conduct pure. 
We are often compelled to set up standards we cannot reach ourselves, and to lay down rules which we could not 
ourselves satisfy. But a man has no right to declare temptation to be an excuse, though he might himself have 
yielded to it, nor allow compassion for the criminal to change or weaken in any manner the legal definition of the 
crime. It is therefore our duty to declare that the prisoners’ act in this case was wilful murder, that the facts as stated 
in the verdict are no legal justification of the homicide; and to say that in our unanimous opinion the prisoners are 
upon this special verdict guilty, of murder. [n. 1] 
THE COURT then proceeded to pass sentence of death upon the prisoners. [n. 2] 
Solicitors for the Crown: The Solicitors for the Treasury. 
Solicitors for the prisoners: Irvine & Hodges. 
1. My brother Grove has furnished me with the following suggestion, too late to be embodied in the judgment but well 
worth preserving: ” If the two accused men were justified in killing Parker, then if not rescued in time, two of the three 
survivors would be justified in killing the third, and of two who remained the stronger would be justified in killing the 
weaker, so that three men might be justifiably killed to give the fourth a chance of surviving.” – C. 
2. This sentence was afterwards commuted by the Crown to six months’ imprisonment. 
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Jeremy Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation (1780) 
 
 
A brief overview of the reading: One familiar way to think about the right thing to do is to ask what will produce the 
greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. This way of thinking about morality finds its clearest 
expression in the philosophy of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). In his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and 
Legislation (1780), Bentham argues that the principle of utility should be the basis of morality and law, and by utility he 
understands whatever promotes pleasure and prevents pain. Is the principle of utility the right guide to all questions of 
right and wrong? 
 
Chapter I. Of the Principle of Utility. 
I. Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone 
to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and 
wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we 
say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it. 
In words a man may pretend to abjure their empire: but in reality he will remain subject to it all the while. The principle 
of utility recognizes this subjection, and assumes it for the foundation of that system, the object of which is to rear the 
fabric of felicity by the hands of reason and of law. Systems which attempt to question it, deal in sounds instead of 
sense, in caprice instead of reason, in darkness instead of light. 
But enough of metaphor and declamation: it is not by such means that moral science is to be improved. 
 
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II. The principle of utility is the foundation of the present work: it will be proper therefore at the outset to give an explicit 
and determinate account of what is meant by it. By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or 
disapproves of every action whatsoever. according to the tendency it appears to have to augment or diminish the 
happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is the same thing in other words to promote or to oppose 
that happiness. I say of every action whatsoever, and therefore not only of every action of a private individual, but of 
every measure of government. 
 
III. By utility is meant that property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or 
happiness, (all this in the present case comes to the same thing) or (what comes again to the same thing) to prevent 
the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered: if that party be the 
community in general, then the happiness of the community: if a particular individual, then the happiness of that 
individual. 
 
IV. The interest of the community is one of the most general expressions that can occur in the phraseology of morals: 
no wonder that the meaning of it is often lost. When it has a meaning, it is this. The community is a fictitious body, 
composed of the individual persons who are considered as constituting as it were its members. The interest of the 
community then is, what is it?— the sum of the interests of the several members who compose it. 
 
V. It is in vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of the individual. A 
thing is said to promote the interest, or to be for the interest, of an individual, when it tends to add to the sumtotal of 
his pleasures: or, what comes to the same thing, to diminish the sum total of his pains. 
 
VI. An action then may be said to be conformable to then principle of utility, or, for shortness sake, to utility, (meaning 
with respect to the community at large) when the tendency it has to augment the happiness of the community is 
greater than any it has to diminish it. 
 
VII. A measure of government (which is but a particular kind of action, performed by a particular person or persons) 
may be said to be conformable to or dictated by the principle of utility, when in like manner the tendency which it has 
to augment the happiness of the community is greater than any which it has to diminish it. 
 
VIII. When an action, or in particular a measure of government, is supposed by a man to be conformable to the 
principle of utility, it may be convenient, for the purposes of discourse, to imagine a kind of law or dictate, called a law 
or dictate of utility: and to speak of the action in question, as being conformable to such law or dictate. 
 
IX. A man may be said to be a partizan of the principle of utility, when the approbation or disapprobation he annexes 
to any action, or to any measure, is determined by and proportioned to the tendency which he conceives it to have to 
augment or to diminish the happiness of the community: or in other words, to its conformity or unconformity to the 
laws or dictates of utility. 
 
X. Of an action that is conformable to the principle of utility one may always say either that it is one that ought to be 
done, or at least that it is not one that ought not to be done. One may say also, that it is right it should be done; at 
least that it is not wrong it should be done: that it is a right action; at least that it is not a wrong action. When thus 
interpreted, the words ought, and right and wrong and others of that stamp, have a meaning: when otherwise, they 
have none. 
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XI. Has the rectitude of this principle been ever formally contested? It should seem that it had, by those who have not 
known what they have been meaning. Is it susceptible of any direct proof? it should seem not: for that which is used to 
prove every thing else, cannot itself be proved: a chain of proofs must have their commencement somewhere. To give 
such proof is as impossible as it is needless. 
 
XII. Not that there is or ever has been that human creature at breathing, however stupid or perverse, who has not on 
many, perhaps on most occasions of his life, deferred to it. By the natural constitution of the human frame, on most 
occasions of their lives men in general embrace this principle, without thinking of it: if not for the ordering of their own 
actions, yet for the trying of their own actions, as well as of those of other men. There have been, at the same time, 
not many perhaps, even of the most intelligent, who have been disposed to embrace it purely and without reserve. 
There are even few who have not taken some occasion or other to quarrel with it, either on account of their not 
understanding always how to apply it, or on account of some prejudice or other which they were afraid to examine 
into, or could not bear to part with. For such is the stuff that man is made of: in principle and in practice, in a right track 
and in a wrong one, the rarest of all human qualities is consistency. 
 
XIII. When a man attempts to combat the principle of utility, it is with reasons drawn, without his being aware of it, from 
that very principle itself. His arguments, if they prove any thing, prove not that the principle is wrong, but that, 
according to the applications he supposes to be made of it, it is misapplied. Is it possible for a man to move the earth? 
Yes; but he must first find out another earth to stand upon. 
 
XIV. To disprove the propriety of it by arguments is impossible; but, from the causes that have been mentioned, or 
from some confused or partial view of it, a man may happen to be disposed not to relish it. Where this is the case, if 
he thinks the settling of his opinions on such a subject worth the trouble, let him take the following steps, and at 
length, perhaps, he may come to reconcile himself to it. 
1. Let him settle with himself, whether he would wish to discard this principle altogether; if so, let him consider what it 
is that all his reasonings (in matters of politics especially) can amount to? 
2. If he would, let him settle with himself, whether he would judge and act without any principle, or whether there is 
any other he would judge an act by? 
3. If there be, let him examine and satisfy himself whether the principle he thinks he has found is really any separate 
intelligible principle; or whether it be not a mere principle in words, a kind of phrase, which at bottom expresses 
neither more nor less than the mere averment of his own unfounded sentiments; that is, what in another person he 
might be apt to call caprice? 
4. If he is inclined to think that his own approbation or disapprobation, annexed to the idea of an act, without any 
regard to its consequences, is a sufficient foundation for him to judge and act upon, let him ask himself whether his 
sentiment is to be a standard of right and wrong, with respect to every other man, or whether every man’s sentiment 
has the same privilege of being a standard to itself? 
5. In the first case, let him ask himself whether his principle is not despotical, and hostile to all the rest of human race? 
6. In the second case, whether it is not anarchial, and whether at this rate there are not as many different standards of 
right and wrong as there are men? and whether even to the same man, the same thing, which is right today, may not 
(without the least change in its nature) be wrong tomorrow? and whether the same thing is not right and wrong in the 
same place at the same time? and in either case, whether all argument is not at an end? and whether, when two men 
have said, “I like this,” and “I don’t like it,” they can (upon such a principle) have any thing more to say? 
7. If he should have said to himself, No: for that the sentiment which he proposes as a standard must be grounded on 
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reflection, let him say on what particulars the reflection is to turn? if on particulars having relation to the utility of the 
act, then let him say whether this is not deserting his own principle, and borrowing assistance from that very one in 
opposition to which he sets it up: or if not on those particulars, on what other particulars? 
8. If he should be for compounding the matter, and adopting his own principle in part, and the principle of utility in part, 
let him say how far he will adopt it? 
9. When he has settled with himself where he will stop, then let him ask himself how he justifies to himself the 
adopting it so far? and why he will not adopt it any farther? 
10. Admitting any other principle than the principle of utility to be a right principle, a principle that it is right for a man to 
pursue; admitting (what is not true) that the word right can have a meaning without reference to utility, let him say 
whether there is any such thing as a motive that a man can have to pursue the dictates of it: if there is, let him say 
what that motive is, and how it is to be distinguished from those which enforce the dictates of utility: if not, then lastly 
let him say what it is this other principle can be good for? 
 
Chapter IV. Value of a Lot of Pleasure or Pain, How to be Measured. 
I. Pleasures then, and the avoidance of pains, are the ends that the legislator has in view; it behoves him therefore to 
understand their value. Pleasures and pains are the instruments he has to work with: it behoves him therefore to 
understand their force,which is again, in other words, their value. 
 
II. To a person considered by himself, the value of a pleasure or pain considered by itself, will be greater or less, 
according to the four following circumstances: 
1. Its intensity. 
2. Its duration. 
3. Its certainty or uncertainty. 
4. Its propinquity or remoteness. 
 
III. These are the circumstances which are to be considered in estimating a pleasure or a pain considered each of 
them by itself. But when the value of any pleasure or pain is considered for the purpose of estimating the tendency of 
any act by which it is produced, there are two other circumstances to be taken into the account; 
these are, 
5. Its fecundity, or the chance it has of being followed by sensations of the same kind: that is, pleasures, if it be a 
pleasure: pains, if it be a pain. 
6. Its purity, or the chance it has of not being followed by sensations of the opposite kind: that is, pains, if it be a 
pleasure: pleasures, if it be a pain. 
These two last, however, are in strictness scarcely to be deemed properties of the pleasure or the pain itself; they are 
not, therefore, in strictness to be taken into the account of the value of that pleasure or that pain. They are in 
strictness to be deemed properties only of the act, or other event, by which such pleasure or pain has been produced; 
and accordingly are only to be taken into the account of the tendency of such act or such event. 
 
IV. To a number of persons, with reference to each of whom to the value of a pleasure or a pain is considered, it will 
be greater or less, according to seven circumstances: to wit, the six preceding ones; viz., 
1. Its intensity. 
2. Its duration. 
3. Its certainty or uncertainty. 
4. Its propinquity or remoteness. 
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5. Its fecundity. 
6. Its purity. 
And one other; to wit: 
7. Its extent; that is, the number of persons to whom it extends; or (in other words) who are affected by it. 
 
V. To take an exact account then of the general tendency of any act, by which the interests of a community are 
affected, proceed as follows. Begin with any one person of those whose interests seem most immediately to be 
affected by it: and take an account, 
1. Of the value of each distinguishable pleasure which appears to be produced by it in the first instance. 
2. Of the value of each pain which appears to be produced by it in the first instance. 
3. Of the value of each pleasure which appears to be produced by it after the first. This constitutes the fecundity of the 
first pleasure and the impurity of the first pain. 
4. Of the value of each pain which appears to be produced by it after the first. This constitutes the fecundity of the first 
pain, and the impurity of the first pleasure. 
5. Sum up all the values of all the pleasures on the one side, and those of all the pains on the other. The balance, if it 
be on the side of pleasure, will give the good tendency of the act upon the whole, with respect to the interests of that 
individual person; if on the side of pain, the bad tendency of it upon the whole. 
6. Take an account of the number of persons whose interests appear to be concerned; and repeat the above process 
with respect to each. Sum up the numbers expressive of the degrees of good tendency, which the act has, with 
respect to each individual, in regard to whom the tendency of it is good upon the whole: do this again with respect to 
each individual, in regard to whom the tendency of it is good upon the whole: do this again with respect to each 
individual, in regard to whom the tendency of it is bad upon the whole. Take the balance which if on the side of 
pleasure, will give the general good tendency of the act, with respect to the total number or community of individuals 
concerned; if on the side of pain, the general evil tendency, with respect to the same community. 
 
VI. It is not to be expected that this process should be strictly pursued previously to every moral judgment, or to every 
legislative or judicial operation. It may, however, be always kept in view: and as near as the process actually pursued 
on these occasions approaches to it, so near will such process approach to the character of an exact one. 
 
VII. The same process is alike applicable to pleasure and pain, in whatever shape they appear: and by whatever 
denomination they are distinguished: to pleasure, whether it be called good (which is properly the cause or instrument 
of pleasure) or profit (which is distant pleasure, or the cause or instrument of, distant pleasure,) or convenience, or 
advantage, benefit, emolument, happiness, and so forth: to pain, whether it be called evil, (which corresponds to 
good) or mischief, or inconvenience or disadvantage, or loss, or unhappiness, and so forth. 
 
VIII. Nor is this a novel and unwarranted, any more than it is a useless theory. In all this there is nothing but what the 
practice of mankind, wheresoever they have a clear view of their own interest, is perfectly conformable to. An article of 
property, an estate in land, for instance, is valuable, on what account? On account of the pleasures of all kinds which 
it enables a man to produce, and what comes to the same thing the pains of all kinds which it enables him to avert. 
But the value of such an article of property is universally understood to rise or fall according to the length or shortness 
of the time which a man has in it: the certainty or uncertainty of its coming into possession: and the nearness or 
remoteness of the time at which, if at all, it is to come into possession. As to the intensity of the pleasures which a 
man may derive from it, this is never thought of, because it depends upon the use which each particular person may 
come to make of it; which cannot be estimated till the particular pleasures he may come to derive from it, or the 
 12 
particular pains he may come to exclude by means of it, are brought to view. For the same reason, neither does he 
think of the fecundity or purity of those pleasures. Thus much for pleasure and pain, happiness and unhappiness, in 
general. We come now to consider the several particular kinds of pain and pleasure. 
 13 
J.S. Mill, Utilitarianism (1863) 
 
 
A brief overview of the reading: Jeremy Bentham’s (1748-1832) principle of utility is open to the objection that it 
may well sacrifice the rights of the minority for the sake of the happiness of the majority. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), 
himself a utilitarian, sought to rescue utilitarianism from this and other objections. In his essay Utilitarianism, Mill 
argues that respect for individuals rights as “the most sacred and binding part of morality” is compatible with the idea 
that justice rests ultimately on utilitarian considerations. But is Mill right to be confident? Can the principle of utility 
support the notion that some rights should be upheld even if doing so makes the majority very unhappy? 
 
Chapter I. General Remarks. 
THERE ARE few circumstances among those which make up the present condition of human knowledge, more unlike 
what might have been expected, or more significant of the backward state in which speculation on the most important 
subjects still lingers, than the little progress which has been made in the decision of the controversy respecting the 
criterion of right and wrong. From the dawn of philosophy, the question concerning the summum bonum, or, what is 
the same thing, concerning the foundation of morality, has been accounted the main problem in speculative thought, 
has occupied the most gifted intellects, and divided them into sects and schools, carrying on a vigorous warfare 
against one another. And after more than two thousand years the same discussions continue, philosophersare still 
ranged under the same contending banners, and neither thinkers nor mankind at large seem nearer to being 
unanimous on the subject, than when the youth Socrates listened to the old Protagoras, and asserted (if Plato’s 
dialogue be grounded on a real conversation) the theory of utilitarianism against the popular morality of the so-called 
sophist. It is true that similar confusion and uncertainty, and in some cases similar discordance, exist respecting the 
first principles of all the sciences, not excepting that which is deemed the most certain of them, mathematics; without 
much impairing, generally indeed without impairing at all, the trustworthiness of the conclusions of those sciences. An 
apparent anomaly, the explanation of which is, that the detailed doctrines of a science are not usually deduced from, 
nor depend for their evidence upon, what are called its first principles. Were it not so, there would be no science more 
 14 
precarious, or whose conclusions were more insufficiently made out, than algebra; which derives none of its certainty 
from what are commonly taught to learners as its elements, since these, as laid down by some of its most eminent 
teachers, are as full of fictions as English law, and of mysteries as theology. The truths which are ultimately accepted 
as the first principles of a science, are really the last results of metaphysical analysis, practised on the elementary 
notions with which the science is conversant; and their relation to the science is not that of foundations to an edifice, 
but of roots to a tree, which may perform their office equally well though they be never dug down to and exposed to 
light. But though in science the particular truths precede the general theory, the contrary might be expected to be the 
case with a practical art, such as morals or legislation. All action is for the sake of some end, and rules of action, it 
seems natural to suppose, must take their whole character and colour from the end to which they are subservient. 
When we engage in a pursuit, a clear and precise conception of what we are pursuing would seem to be the first thing 
we need, instead of the last we are to look forward to. A test of right and wrong must be the means, one would think, 
of ascertaining what is right or wrong, and not a consequence of having already ascertained it. 
 
The difficulty is not avoided by having recourse to the popular theory of a natural faculty, a sense or instinct, 
informing us of right and wrong. For- besides that the existence of such- a moral instinct is itself one of the matters in 
dispute- those believers in it who have any pretensions to philosophy, have been obliged to abandon the idea that it 
discerns what is right or wrong in the particular case in hand, as our other senses discern the sight or sound actually 
present. Our moral faculty, according to all those of its interpreters who are entitled to the name of thinkers, supplies 
us only with the general principles of moral judgments; it is a branch of our reason, not of our sensitive faculty; and 
must be looked to for the abstract doctrines of morality, not for perception of it in the concrete. The intuitive, no less 
than what may be termed the inductive, school of ethics, insists on the necessity of general laws. They both agree that 
the morality of an individual action is not a question of direct perception, but of the application of a law to an individual 
case. They recognise also, to a great extent, the same moral laws; but differ as to their evidence, and the source from 
which they derive their authority. According to the one opinion, the principles of morals are evident a priori, requiring 
nothing to command assent, except that the meaning of the terms be understood. According to the other doctrine, 
right and wrong, as well as truth and falsehood, are questions of observation and experience. But both hold equally 
that morality must be deduced from principles; and the intuitive school affirm as strongly as the inductive, that there is 
a science of morals. Yet they seldom attempt to make out a list of the a priori principles which are to serve as the 
premises of the science; still more rarely do they make any effort to reduce those various principles to one first 
principle, or common ground of obligation. They either assume the ordinary precepts of morals as of a priori authority, 
or they lay down as the common groundwork of those maxims, some generality much less obviously authoritative than 
the maxims themselves, and which has never succeeded in gaining popular acceptance. Yet to support their 
pretensions there ought either to be some one fundamental principle or law, at the root of all morality, or if there be 
several, there should be a determinate order of precedence among them; and the one principle, or the rule for 
deciding between the various principles when they conflict, ought to be self-evident. 
 
To inquire how far the bad effects of this deficiency have been mitigated in practice, or to what extent the 
moral beliefs of mankind have been vitiated or made uncertain by the absence of any distinct recognition of an 
ultimate standard, would imply a complete survey and criticism, of past and present ethical doctrine. It would, 
however, be easy to show that whatever steadiness or consistency these moral beliefs have, attained, has been 
mainly due to the tacit influence of a standard not recognised. Although the non-existence of an acknowledged first 
principle has made ethics not so much a guide as a consecration of men’s actual sentiments, still, as men’s 
sentiments, both of favour and of aversion, are greatly influenced by what they suppose to be the effects of things 
upon their happiness, the principle of utility, or as Bentham latterly called it, the greatest happiness principle, has had 
 15 
a large share in forming the moral doctrines even of those who most scornfully reject its authority. Nor is there any 
school of thought which refuses to admit that the influence of actions on happiness is a most material and even 
predominant consideration in many of the details of morals, however unwilling to acknowledge it as the fundamental 
principle of morality, and the source of moral obligation. I might go much further, and say that to all those a priori 
moralists who deem it necessary to argue at all, utilitarian arguments are indispensable. It is not my present purpose 
to criticise these thinkers; but I cannot help referring, for illustration, to a systematic treatise by one of the most 
illustrious of them, the Metaphysics of Ethics, by Kant. This remarkable man, whose system of thought will long 
remain one of the landmarks in the history of philosophical speculation, does, in the treatise in question, lay down a 
universal first principle as the origin and ground of moral obligation; it is this: “So act, that the rule on which thou actest 
would admit of being adopted as a law by all rational beings.” But when he begins to deduce from this precept any of 
the actual duties of morality, he fails, almost grotesquely, to show that there would be any contradiction, any logical 
(not to say physical) impossibility, in the adoption by all rational beings of the most outrageously immoral rules of 
conduct. All he shows is that the consequences of their universal adoption would be such as no one would choose to 
incur. 
 
On the present occasion, I shall, without further discussion of the other theories, attempt to contribute 
something towards the understanding and appreciation of the Utilitarian or Happiness theory, and towards such proof 
as it is susceptible of. It is evident that this cannot be proof in the ordinary and popular meaning of the term. Questions 
of ultimate ends are not amenable to directproof. Whatever can be proved to be good, must be so by being shown to 
be a means to something admitted to be good without proof. The medical art is proved to be good by its conducing to 
health; but how is it possible to prove that health is good? The art of music is good, for the reason, among others, that 
it produces pleasure; but what proof is it possible to give that pleasure is good? If, then, it is asserted that there is a 
comprehensive formula, including all things which are in themselves good, and that whatever else is good, is not so 
as an end, but as a mean, the formula may be accepted or rejected, but is not a subject of what is commonly 
understood by proof. We are not, however, to infer that its acceptance or rejection must depend on blind impulse, or 
arbitrary choice. There is a larger meaning of the word proof, in which this question is as amenable to it as any other 
of the disputed questions of philosophy. The subject is within the cognisance of the rational faculty; and neither does 
that faculty deal with it solely in the way of intuition. Considerations may be presented capable of determining the 
intellect either to give or withhold its assent to the doctrine; and this is equivalent to proof. 
 
We shall examine presently of what nature are these considerations; in what manner they apply to the case, 
and what rational grounds, therefore, can be given for accepting or rejecting the utilitarian formula. But it is a 
preliminary condition of rational acceptance or rejection, that the formula should be correctly understood. I believe that 
the very imperfect notion ordinarily formed of its meaning, is the chief obstacle which impedes its reception; and that 
could it be cleared, even from only the grosser misconceptions, the question would be greatly simplified, and a large 
proportion of its difficulties removed. Before, therefore, I attempt to enter into the philosophical grounds which can be 
given for assenting to the utilitarian standard, I shall offer some illustrations of the doctrine itself; with the view of 
showing more clearly what it is, distinguishing it from what it is not, and disposing of such of the practical objections to 
it as either originate in, or are closely connected with, mistaken interpretations of its meaning. Having thus prepared 
the ground, I shall afterwards endeavour to throw such light as I can upon the question, considered as one of 
philosophical theory. 
 
 
 
 16 
Chapter 2. What Utilitarianism Is. 
A PASSING remark is all that needs be given to the ignorant blunder of supposing that those who stand up 
for utility as the test of right and wrong, use the term in that restricted and merely colloquial sense in which utility is 
opposed to pleasure. An apology is due to the philosophical opponents of utilitarianism, for even the momentary 
appearance of confounding them with any one capable of so absurd a misconception; which is the more 
extraordinary, inasmuch as the contrary accusation, of referring everything to pleasure, and that too in its grossest 
form, is another of the common charges against utilitarianism: and, as has been pointedly remarked by an able writer, 
the same sort of persons, and often the very same persons, denounce the theory “as impracticably dry when the word 
utility precedes the word pleasure, and as too practicably voluptuous when the word pleasure precedes the word 
utility.” Those who know anything about the matter are aware that every writer, from Epicurus to Bentham, who 
maintained the theory of utility, meant by it, not something to be contradistinguished from pleasure, but pleasure itself, 
together with exemption from pain; and instead of opposing the useful to the agreeable or the ornamental, have 
always declared that the useful means these, among other things. Yet the common herd, including the herd of writers, 
not only in newspapers and periodicals, but in books of weight and pretension, are perpetually falling into this shallow 
mistake. Having caught up the word utilitarian, while knowing nothing whatever about it but its sound, they habitually 
express by it the rejection, or the neglect, of pleasure in some of its forms; of beauty, of ornament, or of amusement. 
Nor is the term thus ignorantly misapplied solely in disparagement, but occasionally in compliment; as though it 
implied superiority to frivolity and the mere pleasures of the moment. And this perverted use is the only one in which 
the word is popularly known, and the one from which the new generation are acquiring their sole notion of its meaning. 
Those who introduced the word, but who had for many years discontinued it as a distinctive appellation, may well feel 
themselves called upon to resume it, if by doing so they can hope to contribute anything towards rescuing it from this 
utter degradation.1 
The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that 
actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of 
happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of 
pleasure. To give a clear view of the moral standard set up by the theory, much more requires to be said; in particular, 
what things it includes in the ideas of pain and pleasure; and to what extent this is left an open question. But these 
supplementary explanations do not affect the theory of life on which this theory of morality is grounded- namely, that 
pleasure, and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends; and that all desirable things (which are as 
numerous in the utilitarian as in any other scheme) are desirable either for the pleasure inherent in themselves, or as 
means to the promotion of pleasure and the prevention of pain. 
 
Now, such a theory of life excites in many minds, and among them in some of the most estimable in feeling 
and purpose, inveterate dislike. To suppose that life has (as they express it) no higher end than pleasure- no better 
and nobler object of desire and pursuit- they designate as utterly mean and grovelling; as a doctrine worthy only of 
swine, to whom the followers of Epicurus were, at a very early period, contemptuously likened; and modern holders of 
the doctrine are occasionally made the subject of equally polite comparisons by its German, French, and English 
assailants. 
 
 
1 The author of this essay has reason for believing himself to be the first person who brought the word utilitarian into use. He did not invent 
it, but adopted it from a passing expression in Mr. Galt's Annals of the Parish. After using it as a designation for several years, he and others 
abandoned it from a growing dislike to anything resembling a badge or watchword of sectarian distinction. But as a name for one single 
opinion, not a set of opinions- to denote the recognition of utility as a standard, not any particular way of applying it- the term supplies a want 
in the language, and offers, in many cases, a convenient mode of avoiding tiresome circumlocution. 
 17 
When thus attacked, the Epicureans have always answered, that it is not they, but their accusers, who 
represent human nature in a degrading light; since the accusation supposes human beings to be capable of no 
pleasures except those of which swine are capable. If this supposition were true, the charge could not be gainsaid, but 
would then be no longer an imputation; for if the sources of pleasure were precisely the same to human beings and to 
swine, the rule of life which is good enough for the one would be good enough for the other. The comparison of the 
Epicurean life to that of beasts is felt as degrading, precisely becausea beast’s pleasures do not satisfy a human 
being’s conceptions of happiness. Human beings have faculties more elevated than the animal appetites, and when 
once made conscious of them, do not regard anything as happiness which does not include their gratification. I do not, 
indeed, consider the Epicureans to have been by any means faultless in drawing out their scheme of consequences 
from the utilitarian principle. To do this in any sufficient manner, many Stoic, as well as Christian elements require to 
be included. But there is no known Epicurean theory of life which does not assign to the pleasures of the intellect, of 
the feelings and imagination, and of the moral sentiments, a much higher value as pleasures than to those of mere 
sensation. It must be admitted, however, that utilitarian writers in general have placed the superiority of mental over 
bodily pleasures chiefly in the greater permanency, safety, uncostliness, etc., of the former- that is, in their 
circumstantial advantages rather than in their intrinsic nature. And on all these points utilitarians have fully proved their 
case; but they might have taken the other, and, as it may be called, higher ground, with entire consistency. It is quite 
compatible with the principle of utility to recognise the fact, that some kinds of pleasure are more desirable and more 
valuable than others. It would be absurd that while, in estimating all other things, quality is considered as well as 
quantity, the estimation of pleasures should be supposed to depend on quantity alone. 
 
If I am asked, what I mean by difference of quality in pleasures, or what makes one pleasure more valuable 
than another, merely as a pleasure, except its being greater in amount, there is but one possible answer. Of two 
pleasures, if there be one to which all or almost all who have experience of both give a decided preference, 
irrespective of any feeling of moral obligation to prefer it, that is the more desirable pleasure. If one of the two is, by 
those who are competently acquainted with both, placed so far above the other that they prefer it, even though 
knowing it to be attended with a greater amount of discontent, and would not resign it for any quantity of the other 
pleasure which their nature is capable of, we are justified in ascribing to the preferred enjoyment a superiority in 
quality, so far outweighing quantity as to render it, in comparison, of small account. 
 
Now it is an unquestionable fact that those who are equally acquainted with, and equally capable of 
appreciating and enjoying, both, do give a most marked preference to the manner of existence which employs their 
higher faculties. Few human creatures would consent to be changed into any of the lower animals, for a promise of 
the fullest allowance of a beast’s pleasures; no intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, no instructed 
person would be an ignoramus, no person of feeling and conscience would be selfish and base, even though they 
should be persuaded that the fool, the dunce, or the rascal is better satisfied with his lot than they are with theirs. They 
would not resign what they possess more than he for the most complete satisfaction of all the desires which they have 
in common with him. If they ever fancy they would, it is only in cases of unhappiness so extreme, that to escape from 
it they would exchange their lot for almost any other, however undesirable in their own eyes. A being of higher 
faculties requires more to make him happy, is capable probably of more acute suffering, and certainly accessible to it 
at more points, than one of an inferior type; but in spite of these liabilities, he can never really wish to sink into what he 
feels to be a lower grade of existence. We may give what explanation we please of this unwillingness; we may 
attribute it to pride, a name which is given indiscriminately to some of the most and to some of the least estimable 
feelings of which mankind are capable: we may refer it to the love of liberty and personal independence, an appeal to 
which was with the Stoics one of the most effective means for the inculcation of it; to the love of power, or to the love 
 18 
of excitement, both of which do really enter into and contribute to it: but its most appropriate appellation is a sense of 
dignity, which all human beings possess in one form or other, and in some, though by no means in exact, proportion 
to their higher faculties, and which is so essential a part of the happiness of those in whom it is strong, that nothing 
which conflicts with it could be, otherwise than momentarily, an object of desire to them. 
 
Whoever supposes that this preference takes place at a sacrifice of happiness- that the superior being, in 
anything like equal circumstances, is not happier than the inferior- confounds the two very different ideas, of 
happiness, and content. It is indisputable that the being whose capacities of enjoyment are low, has the greatest 
chance of having them fully satisfied; and a highly endowed being will always feel that any happiness which he can 
look for, as the world is constituted, is imperfect. But he can learn to bear its imperfections, if they are at all bearable; 
and they will not make him envy the being who is indeed unconscious of the imperfections, but only because he feels 
not at all the good which those imperfections qualify. It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; 
better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are a different opinion, it is because 
they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides. 
 
It may be objected, that many who are capable of the higher pleasures, occasionally, under the influence of 
temptation, postpone them to the lower. But this is quite compatible with a full appreciation of the intrinsic superiority 
of the higher. Men often, from infirmity of character, make their election for the nearer good, though they know it to be 
the less valuable; and this no less when the choice is between two bodily pleasures, than when it is between bodily 
and mental. They pursue sensual indulgences to the injury of health, though perfectly aware that health is the greater 
good. 
 
It may be further objected, that many who begin with youthful enthusiasm for everything noble, as they 
advance in years sink into indolence and selfishness. But I do not believe that those who undergo this very common 
change, voluntarily choose the lower description of pleasures in preference to the higher. I believe that before they 
devote themselves exclusively to the one, they have already become incapable of the other. Capacity for the nobler 
feelings is in most natures a very tender plant, easily killed, not only by hostile influences, but by mere want of 
sustenance; and in the majority of young persons it speedily dies away if the occupations to which their position in life 
has devoted them, and the society into which it has thrown them, are not favourable to keeping that higher capacity in 
exercise. Men lose their high aspirations as they lose their intellectual tastes, because they have not time or 
opportunity for indulging them; and they addict themselves to inferior pleasures, not because they deliberately prefer 
them, but because they are either the only ones to which they have access, or the only ones which they are any 
longer capable of enjoying. It may be questioned whether any one who has remained equally susceptible to both 
classes of pleasures, ever knowingly and calmly preferred the lower; though many, in all ages, have broken down in 
an ineffectual attempt to combine both. 
 
From this verdict of the only competent judges, I apprehend therecan be no appeal. On a question which is 
the best worth having of two pleasures, or which of two modes of existence is the most grateful to the feelings, apart 
from its moral attributes and from its consequences, the judgment of those who are qualified by knowledge of both, or, 
if they differ, that of the majority among them, must be admitted as final. And there needs be the less hesitation to 
accept this judgment respecting the quality of pleasures, since there is no other tribunal to be referred to even on the 
question of quantity. What means are there of determining which is the acutest of two pains, or the intensest of two 
pleasurable sensations, except the general suffrage of those who are familiar with both? Neither pains nor pleasures 
are homogeneous, and pain is always heterogeneous with pleasure. What is there to decide whether a particular 
 19 
pleasure is worth purchasing at the cost of a particular pain, except the feelings and judgment of the experienced? 
When, therefore, those feelings and judgment declare the pleasures derived from the higher faculties to be preferable 
in kind, apart from the question of intensity, to those of which the animal nature, disjoined from the higher faculties, is 
suspectible, they are entitled on this subject to the same regard. 
 
I have dwelt on this point, as being a necessary part of a perfectly just conception of Utility or Happiness, 
considered as the directive rule of human conduct. But it is by no means an indispensable condition to the acceptance 
of the utilitarian standard; for that standard is not the agent’s own greatest happiness, but the greatest amount of 
happiness altogether; and if it may possibly be doubted whether a noble character is always the happier for its 
nobleness, there can be no doubt that it makes other people happier, and that the world in general is immensely a 
gainer by it. Utilitarianism, therefore, could only attain its end by the general cultivation of nobleness of character, 
even if each individual were only benefited by the nobleness of others, and his own, so far as happiness is concerned, 
were a sheer deduction from the benefit. But the bare enunciation of such an absurdity as this last, renders refutation 
superfluous. 
 
According to the Greatest Happiness Principle, as above explained, the ultimate end, with reference to and 
for the sake of which all other things are desirable (whether we are considering our own good or that of other people), 
is an existence exempt as far as possible from pain, and as rich as possible in enjoyments, both in point of quantity 
and quality; the test of quality, and the rule for measuring it against quantity, being the preference felt by those who in 
their opportunities of experience, to which must be added their habits of self-consciousness and self-observation, are 
best furnished with the means of comparison. This, being, according to the utilitarian opinion, the end of human 
action, is necessarily also the standard of morality; which may accordingly be defined, the rules and precepts for 
human conduct, by the observance of which an existence such as has been described might be, to the greatest extent 
possible, secured to all mankind; and not to them only, but, so far as the nature of things admits, to the whole sentient 
creation. 
 
Against this doctrine, however, arises another class of objectors, who say that happiness, in any form, cannot 
be the rational purpose of human life and action; because, in the first place, it is unattainable: and they 
contemptuously ask, what right hast thou to be happy? a question which Mr. Carlyle clenches by the addition, What 
right, a short time ago, hadst thou even to be? Next, they say, that men can do without happiness; that all noble 
human beings have felt this, and could not have become noble but by learning the lesson of Entsagen, or 
renunciation; which lesson, thoroughly learnt and submitted to, they affirm to be the beginning and necessary 
condition of all virtue. 
 
The first of these objections would go to the root of the matter were it well founded; for if no happiness is to 
be had at all by human beings, the attainment of it cannot be the end of morality, or of any rational conduct. Though, 
even in that case, something might still be said for the utilitarian theory; since utility includes not solely the pursuit of 
happiness, but the prevention or mitigation of unhappiness; and if the former aim be chimerical, there will be all the 
greater scope and more imperative need for the latter, so long at least as mankind think fit to live, and do not take 
refuge in the simultaneous act of suicide recommended under certain conditions by Novalis. When, however, it is thus 
positively asserted to be impossible that human life should be happy, the assertion, if not something like a verbal 
quibble, is at least an exaggeration. If by happiness be meant a continuity of highly pleasurable excitement, it is 
evident enough that this is impossible. A state of exalted pleasure lasts only moments, or in some cases, and with 
some intermissions, hours or days, and is the occasional brilliant flash of enjoyment, not its permanent and steady 
 20 
flame. Of this the philosophers who have taught that happiness is the end of life were as fully aware as those who 
taunt them. The happiness which they meant was not a life of rapture; but moments of such, in an existence made up 
of few and transitory pains, many and various pleasures, with a decided predominance of the active over the passive, 
and having as the foundation of the whole, not to expect more from life than it is capable of bestowing. A life thus 
composed, to those who have been fortunate enough to obtain it, has always appeared worthy of the name of 
happiness. And such an existence is even now the lot of many, during some considerable portion of their lives. The 
present wretched education, and wretched social arrangements, are the only real hindrance to its being attainable by 
almost all. 
 
The objectors perhaps may doubt whether human beings, if taught to consider happiness as the end of life, 
would be satisfied with such a moderate share of it. But great numbers of mankind have been satisfied with much 
less. The main constituents of a satisfied life appear to be two, either of which by itself is often found sufficient for the 
purpose: tranquillity, and excitement. With much tranquillity, many find that they can be content with very little 
pleasure: with much excitement, many can reconcile themselves to a considerable quantity of pain. There is assuredly 
no inherent impossibility in enabling even the mass of mankind to unite both; since the two are so far from being 
incompatible that they are in natural alliance, the prolongation of either being a preparation for, and exciting a wish for, 
the other. It is only those in whom indolence amounts to a vice, that do not desire excitement after an interval of 
repose: it is only those in whom the need of excitement is a disease, that feel the tranquillity which follows excitement 
dull and insipid, instead of pleasurable in direct proportion to the excitement which preceded it. When people who are 
tolerably fortunate in their outward lot do not find in life sufficient enjoyment to make it valuable to them, the cause 
generally is, caring for nobody but themselves. To those who have neither public nor private affections, the 
excitements of life are much curtailed, and in any case dwindle in value as the time approaches when all selfish 
interests must be terminated by death: while those who leave after them objects of personal affection, and especially 
those who have also cultivated a fellow-feeling with the collective interests of mankind, retain as lively an interestin 
life on the eve of death as in the vigour of youth and health. Next to selfishness, the principal cause which makes life 
unsatisfactory is want of mental cultivation. A cultivated mind – I do not mean that of a philosopher, but any mind to 
which the fountains of knowledge have been opened, and which has been taught, in any tolerable degree, to exercise 
its faculties- finds sources of inexhaustible interest in all that surrounds it; in the objects of nature, the achievements of 
art, the imaginations of poetry, the incidents of history, the ways of mankind, past and present, and their prospects in 
the future. It is possible, indeed, to become indifferent to all this, and that too without having exhausted a thousandth 
part of it; but only when one has had from the beginning no moral or human interest in these things, and has sought in 
them only the gratification of curiosity. 
 
Now there is absolutely no reason in the nature of things why an amount of mental culture sufficient to give 
an intelligent interest in these objects of contemplation, should not be the inheritance of every one born in a civilised 
country. As little is there an inherent necessity that any human being should be a selfish egotist, devoid of every 
feeling or care but those which centre in his own miserable individuality. Something far superior to this is sufficiently 
common even now, to give ample earnest of what the human species may be made. Genuine private affections and a 
sincere interest in the public good, are possible, though in unequal degrees, to every rightly brought up human being. 
In a world in which there is so much to interest, so much to enjoy, and so much also to correct and improve, every one 
who has this moderate amount of moral and intellectual requisites is capable of an existence which may be called 
enviable; and unless such a person, through bad laws, or subjection to the will of others, is denied the liberty to use 
the sources of happiness within his reach, he will not fail to find this enviable existence, if he escape the positive evils 
of life, the great sources of physical and mental suffering- such as indigence, disease, and the unkindness, 
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worthlessness, or premature loss of objects of affection. The main stress of the problem lies, therefore, in the contest 
with these calamities, from which it is a rare good fortune entirely to escape; which, as things now are, cannot be 
obviated, and often cannot be in any material degree mitigated. Yet no one whose opinion deserves a moment’s 
consideration can doubt that most of the great positive evils of the world are in themselves removable, and will, if 
human affairs continue to improve, be in the end reduced within narrow limits. Poverty, in any sense implying 
suffering, may be completely extinguished by the wisdom of society, combined with the good sense and providence of 
individuals. Even that most intractable of enemies, disease, may be indefinitely reduced in dimensions by good 
physical and moral education, and proper control of noxious influences; while the progress of science holds out a 
promise for the future of still more direct conquests over this detestable foe. And every advance in that direction 
relieves us from some, not only of the chances which cut short our own lives, but, what concerns us still more, which 
deprive us of those in whom our happiness is wrapt up. As for vicissitudes of fortune, and other disappointments 
connected with worldly circumstances, these are principally the effect either of gross imprudence, of ill-regulated 
desires, or of bad or imperfect social institutions. 
 
All the grand sources, in short, of human suffering are in a great degree, many of them almost entirely, 
conquerable by human care and effort; and though their removal is grievously slow- though a long succession of 
generations will perish in the breach before the conquest is completed, and this world becomes all that, if will and 
knowledge were not wanting, it might easily be made- yet every mind sufficiently intelligent and generous to bear a 
part, however small and unconspicuous, in the endeavour, will draw a noble enjoyment from the contest itself, which 
he would not for any bribe in the form of selfish indulgence consent to be without. 
 
And this leads to the true estimation of what is said by the objectors concerning the possibility, and the 
obligation, of learning to do without happiness. Unquestionably it is possible to do without happiness; it is done 
involuntarily by nineteen-twentieths of mankind, even in those parts of our present world which are least deep in 
barbarism; and it often has to be done voluntarily by the hero or the martyr, for the sake of something which he prizes 
more than his individual happiness. But this something, what is it, unless the happiness of others or some of the 
requisites of happiness? It is noble to be capable of resigning entirely one’s own portion of happiness, or chances of it: 
but, after all, this self-sacrifice must be for some end; it is not its own end; and if we are told that its end is not 
happiness, but virtue, which is better than happiness, I ask, would the sacrifice be made if the hero or martyr did not 
believe that it would earn for others immunity from similar sacrifices? Would it be made if he thought that his 
renunciation of happiness for himself would produce no fruit for any of his fellow creatures, but to make their lot like 
his, and place them also in the condition of persons who have renounced happiness? All honour to those who can 
abnegate for themselves the personal enjoyment of life, when by such renunciation they contribute worthily to 
increase the amount of happiness in the world; but he who does it, or professes to do it, for any other purpose, is no 
more deserving of admiration than the ascetic mounted on his pillar. He may be an inspiriting proof of what men can 
do, but assuredly not an example of what they should. 
 
Though it is only in a very imperfect state of the world’s arrangements that any one can best serve the 
happiness of others by the absolute sacrifice of his own, yet so long as the world is in that imperfect state, I fully 
acknowledge that the readiness to make such a sacrifice is the highest virtue which can be found in man. I will add, 
that in this condition the world, paradoxical as the assertion may be, the conscious ability to do without happiness 
gives the best prospect of realising, such happiness as is attainable. For nothing except that consciousness can raise 
a person above the chances of life, by making him feel that, let fate and fortune do their worst, they have not power to 
subdue him: which, once felt, frees him from excess of anxiety concerning the evils of life, and enables him, like many 
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a Stoic in the worst times of the Roman Empire, to cultivate in tranquillity the sources of satisfaction accessible to him, 
without concerning himself about the uncertainty of their duration, any more than about their inevitable end. 
Meanwhile, let utilitarians never cease to claim the morality of self devotion as a possession which belongs by as 
good a right to them, as either to the Stoic or to the Transcendentalist. The utilitarian morality does recognise in 
human beings the power of sacrificing their own greatest good for the good of others. It only refuses to admit that the 
sacrifice is itself a good. A sacrifice which does not increase, or tend to increase, the sum total of happiness, it 
considers as wasted. The only self-renunciation which it applauds, is devotion to the happiness, or to some of the 
means of happiness, of others; either of mankind collectively, or of individuals within the limits imposed by the 
collective interests of mankind. 
 
I must again