John Stuart Mill was one of the greatest philosophers of the 19th century. Mill was best renowned for his idea of “Utilitarianism.” Utilitarianism originated from an ethical principle under Jeremy Bentham, who theorized an action is right if it produces the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Mill revised the concept of utility and has brought forth “the Greatest Happiness Principle.” Perhaps against this doctrine commences a dissent to those who say that happiness in any form cannot be the rational purpose in human life. These objectors state that the principle of utility is simply unattainable. In the short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin, strict utilitarianism is presented. To what doctrine allows a morality action based on the pain of one or few to provide the greater part happy?

Mill emphasizes the Greatest Happiness Principle as, one’s actions are right if they tend to promote happiness; wrong, as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness, meaning the promotion of pleasure and the prevention of pain. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, the promotion of p

The story is a very extreme case of utilitarianism. Most of the choices people face with are “ what charity should I donate to?” or “should I give money to that beggar or give him food?” which wouldn’t toddle with the mind as the previous situation. The problem with the principle is that it’s a set principle without any loopholes. Mill has provided us with a moral concept that keeps contradicting itself. The challenge in utilitarianism is failing to completely know the outcome. It is understandable that one could not predict the future, but could only hold a probable guess. For example, as a utilitarian, I decided to kill Sadam Hussein for all the pain and suffering he’s caused other people. In this case, one could make a probable prediction, I’ve imposed happiness and I eliminated the pain at the source, in this case, Sadam Hussein. Now the problem is, what if my action of total utilitarianism backfired? If the death of Sadam Hussein causes a riot, which will lead to World War III, then more lives would be lost as a result of my utilitarian action. Another dilemma raised upon utilitarianism is the challenge and pressure it puts on people. As a utilitarian, one is limited to certain choices that may seem very difficult to make. According to a critique of utilitarianism written by Bernard Williams, Williams used two situations to emphasize the expectations utilitarianism puts on people. One of the situations was basically about a man, named Jim, who has come across ten Indians who will be killed. The captain saw Jim as an honoured visitor from another land, so he gave Jim a guest opportunity. He told Jim that he was going to kill those ten Indians, but if Jim decides to kill one, the captain would let the nine go. In this situation, Jim has the choice to either kill one Indian himself, or know that ten will be killed. Under utilitarianism, Jim is obligated to kill that one Indian. How does one even make such a decision without carefully considering the consequences? If Jim decided to kill one of the Indians, he is considered a utilitarian, a moral concept of providing the greatest good of the greatest number. Now what about the moral concept of “Thou shalt not kill?” And even if utilitarianism is the better choice because it saves nine lives, how does one choose who dies? When does it make it all right for anyone to choose who shall live and who can’t?

Different pleasures bring different amounts of happiness to different people, but in Bentham´s theory all pleasures are equal. Mill, on the other hand, ac

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