Happiness Principle

John Stuart Mill’s utilitarianism explains that utilitarians believe that actions are right insofar as they produce happiness, and wrong insofar as they produce unhappiness. Mill argues that human happiness is not simply based on base pleasures but on “higher” pleasures that cater to our intelligence, education, feelings, and dignity. He expands on this by introducing the greatest happiness principle (GHP), which states that we should strive to maximize overall happiness, and the principle of equal consideration (PEC), which insists that we treat everyone’s happiness equally. The excerpt goes on to discuss sentience as a criterion for moral worth and explores some common objections to utilitarianism, as well as Mill’s responses to those objections.