J.S.Mill’s theory of Utilitarianism: Conceptual analysis

John Stuart Mill’s engagement with utilitarianism is one of his earliest exposures to the world of theorisation. His initial enthusiasm for Bentham’s utilitarianism was short-lived. He realised Bentham’s utilitarianism focuses more on the quantitative nature of human happiness rather than on the qualitative one. Mill emphasised the qualitative aspects of pleasures and varying degrees of pleasures. Unlike Bentham, Mill engaged with utilitarianism as a moral principle and his subsequent understanding of liberty, the role of the state and democracy highlight the ethical and qualitative aspects of pleasure and pain principles. In this exercise undertaken by Mill, we can locate the trajectory of utilitarianism shifting from a hedonistic plane to a moral one.