Pleasure †Morality Essay

Mill is an heir of an intellectual movement in England known as Utilitarianism; utilitarianism is concerned with the acquisition of pleasure and elimination of pain. John Stuart Mill follows the guidelines of utilitarianism in order to decide if certain actions are moral. Utilitarianism states that a person should perform the action that produces the most pleasurable outcome for every person involved. In order to accurately judge if one pleasure is greater than another, the person must be unprejudiced and have experienced both; such judges will prefer the higher pleasures over the lower ones. However, Mill recognizes that people aren’t always driven to follow moral social standards, because the reasons behind their actions can be not only external but internal as well. What Mill means is that expectations of us from our peers and from a higher being, such as God, do not obligate us to follow these rules set out by society; it is our own feeling within that holds us accountable to these standards. Lastly, Mill believes that in order to be a moral creature, we must obey the three conditions of utility: 1) Goodness is understood as production of happiness, elimination of pain, 2) for all of those concerned with the action, and 3) each counts for one and â€Å"no more than one. † Utilitarian’s believe that a person’s actions are right if they produce happiness; â€Å"the greatest happiness of greatest number,†(Denise, Peterfreund, and White, p. 158). Michael, Peter and Samir are employees at Initech and are planning scamming the company by installing a computer virus that skims money out of the company’s bank account. Mill would look at this action by looking at the conditions of utilitarianism. Although they meet the first criteria of producing happiness through the elimination of pain by acquiring large amounts of money, they do not meet part two or three. In regards to part two, it does produce happiness for the ones directly performing the scam but it indirectly affects the other members working for Initech as well as stakeholders and therefore causes pain for those indirectly affected. Lastly, the third condition to count for one and only one is not met because a lot of people are involved. Mill also considers that in order for an action to be moral, it must come from within. Peter, being the leader of this scam, has no internal morals or considerations for those around him. Michael and Samir are only involved in this scam because they are the brains in this operation and it wouldn’t be possible to perform this action otherwise. Mill believes that although people are motivated by their own desires and they shouldn’t act on them. However, Peter, Michael, and Samir do just that. Mill thinks that when people are excessively fortunate that they are incapable of enjoying it because it only benefits themselves. This goes to show that their scam is immoral because it only directly increases their happiness due to their own self-interests. Also, Mill argues that a person with high capacities will need more to make him happy and therefore is capable of experiencing larger quantities of pain; however, they still shouldn’t allow this to lower their expectations and faculties. Although Peter has experienced a prolonged period of pain while working at Initech through tedious tasks and constant pressure from his eight bosses, this should not be a good enough reason for him to affect others’ faculties and reduce their worth as human beings. Mill says,† it is greater to be a man dissatisfied than a pig satisfied,† (p. 162). In other words, Peter is not capable of experiencing the highest form of pleasure, and therefore chooses to increase the lower pleasures, lowering his existence in the world. Many people who start off wanting everything which is moral sometimes turn to selfish measures. The reason why so many people end up becoming selfish is due to being in occupations that lower their aspirations of something greater; which may be a reason why Michael, Peter, and Samir choose to go through with this scam. They are not unprejudiced judges because they do not know what higher pleasures consist of; due to lack of opportunity. Considering all of these utilitarian schemes, Mill would argue that although on the surface Michael, Samir, and Peter seem to be acting immorally, they could possibly be unable to accurately judge both the higher and lower pleasures because they were not capable of enjoying the higher pleasures.