On The Mill's Utilitarian Concept Of Justice

Among all criticism faced by utilitarianism, the first is from the challenges and questions of justice. When Mill decided to reinterpret utilitarianism, justice became an unavoidable problem for him. This paper aims mainly at a detailed study on Mill's theory of justice, in which I will seek to argue and demonstrate the following two issues. First, what is the relationship between justice and utilitarianism in Mill's utilitarian theory and whether they are compatible with each other? Second, whether Mill's theory of justice pays enough attention to individual rights and whether it would result in violations of individual rights. For the second question, there is an extended problem, namely, the interests of vulnerable groups.Mill addresses himself to the first question like this. First and foremost, Mill thinks that whether seen from the origin of justice, the conflict of the concept of justice, or the sense of justice, what's hidden behind those aspects is the utilitarian problem. Next, through research of the concept of justice, Mill finds that what utility and justice have in common is the implicit rights of individuals. We need justice in respect that we want to protect individual rights, and for the question why we should protect the rights of individuals or why should we have the right, Mill's utilitarian reason is that this is the need of utility, which is the fundamental basis of all this. Finally, while emphasizing the principle of utility as the first principle, Mill doesn't deny the importance of the principle of justice in our moral lives and thinks that the principle of justice is the most important principle in addition to the principle of utility. For the second question, Mill claims that on the one hand justice is the protection of the rights of individuals and distinction should be made between individual rights and rights of others; on the other hand, as for the problem of the interests of vulnerable groups, though Mill doesn't consider it as a problem in the realm of justice, claims that it should be widen by humanity which to some extent make up for the deficiency of the justice theory.In the chapter arrangements, the paper is divided into three chapters. The first chapter introduces justice theories of some thinkers including Hobbes, Hume and Bentham whose theories are more related to Mill's theory of justice. Hobbes and Hume's theories of justice had a greater impact on Mill's theory of justice. And as to Bentham, Mill admits that he "grew up drinking the milk of Bentham. "The second chapter is the key part in this paper. In this chapter, I will discuss the question of justice from three aspects, namely justice and righteousness, justice and individual rights, the principle of justice and the principle of utility. One of the main clues running through them is the relationship between utility and justice.The third chapter discusses mainly how Mill's theory of justice deals with individual rights, which is the reason why utilitarianism is often criticized. In this chapter, we can see whether Mill has a valid solution to the problem or not and what is the effect of the solution to the problem. In the second chapter, in addition to the relationship between justice and utility as one of the clues, there is in fact another clue namely the relationship between justice and individual rights. Mill thinks that where there is the problem of right there would be problem of justice. Justice is associated with individual rights. It is also the clue for the discussion in the third chapter.