John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism

What I expect to learn:

                To know what utilitarianism means (literal meaning).

                To know how it affects our life and values

                To know how to apply John’s concept in IT

Quote: “To do as you would be done by add to love your neighbor as yourself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality.”

Review:

                For all of the people I know, probably all of them want to be happy or they want to feel that sense of joy, satisfaction and contentment. This particular reading is the one of the contribution of John Stuart Mill, one of the most important and influential British philosophers. One of his basic principles is all about the Principle of Utility or the Greatest Happiness Principle. The reading said in order for you to be happy, you must have the sense of pleasure. Based on my additional research (from Wikipedia.com), utilitarianism is an action that is determined in providing happiness and pleasure. It is actually a form of consequentialism, or in other words that the moral worth of an action is based on its outcome.

                On the first part of the article, it goes like this, “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.” This is definitely true especially in real life. Why? How come? It is because when you want something, you can do all your best to pursue that thing. In my opinion, this statement has similarities on the contents of the book, “The Secret”. The book is actually emphasizes the “law of attraction”, when you have things that you don’t want to happen, take away them from your minds. Just focus on the positive or the brighter side. For me, it is also the essence of utility. Focus on the things you want then it will surely happen.   

What I’ve learn:

                I’ve learned what the essence of utilitarianism is.

                I’ve learned how the concepts of John apply in our life.

                I’ve learned why we should have pleasures in our minds.

Integrative questions:

                What is utilitarianism?

                Why we should have pleasures in our mind?

                How pleasures and happiness connected?

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness