Introduction to John Stuart Mill\u27s Utilitarianism

John Stuart Mill\u27s Utilitarianism, which first appeared in three installments of Fraser\u27s Magazine in 1861, was intended as a defense of the notorious doctrine identified with the liberal reformer Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and with the author\u27s father, James Mill (1773-1836). The defense was successful. While the principle of utility, or as Bentham has latterly called it, the greatest happiness principle, may have scandalized Victorian England, Mill\u27s Utilitarianism became one of the defining documents of modern British and American liberalism. It is impossible to appreciate contemporary social and political life without coming to grips with utilitarianism