A Study Of Mill's Utilitarianism Ethics Thought

John Stuart Mill(1806-1873) ,a famous thinker of England, his thought involved in many realm such as politics, economy, philosophy, logic, religion, ethics etc. And he was compared to "the symbol of spirits in 19 centuries of England", "the sage of rationalism" by the west scholar. After his thought born, the research of his born and thought is always popular in West. Therefore, in the West Thought Circles, Mill is diversified. This thesis tries to study on Mill's utilitarianism ethics thought, in order to discover its beneficial ideas and to evaluate Mill reasonably and objectively.This thesis is divided into four chapters, chapter 1 is from introducing the Mill's utilitarianism principle—the biggest happiness , to introduce Mill's answer to the criticism, the distinction of quality and quantity on the foundation of Jeremy Bentham's happiness, and its evaluation basis of virtue, then makes the conclusion that he valued effect but not negative the motivation ,so he was different from Jeremy Bentham's effect theory. On this foundation, I study on Mill's analysis to freedom and utility, the justice and utility, and then we can learn that his utilitarianism didn't ignore the right of people, but paid attention to the freedom of people, and paid attention to the justice of society, so he is a harmony utilitarian; Chapter 2 of my thesis is on the foundation of chapter 1, I analyze the utilitarianism happiness standpoint of Mill in detail, beginning with the Mill's definition of "happiness", discuss the characteristics of happiness: Unify of personal happiness and public happiness, unify of happiness and virtue, unify of happiness and the development of character, and I analyze the inspiring meaning of the ideas of his "happiness". In Chapter 3 I discuss Mill's sanctions idea of morals -conscience theory, which Mill concluded from learning and analyzing the exterior sanctions of Jeremy Bentham. On the foundation of the analysis of Mill's main utilitarianism ethics thought, I draw a conclusion in chapter 4, economy and morals education; I analyze the practical meaning of Mill's utilitarianism ethics thought in contemporary China.