Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Method of Citation
- Introduction
- 1 Mill's Life and Philosophical Background
- 2 Mill's Criticism of Alternative Theories
- 3 Qualities of Pleasure
- 4 Was Mill an Act- or Rule-Utilitarian?
- 5 Sanctions and Moral Motivation
- 6 Mill's “Proof” of the Principle of Utility
- 7 Utility and Justice
- Appendix: An Overall View of Mill's Utilitarianism
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Sanctions and Moral Motivation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Method of Citation
- Introduction
- 1 Mill's Life and Philosophical Background
- 2 Mill's Criticism of Alternative Theories
- 3 Qualities of Pleasure
- 4 Was Mill an Act- or Rule-Utilitarian?
- 5 Sanctions and Moral Motivation
- 6 Mill's “Proof” of the Principle of Utility
- 7 Utility and Justice
- Appendix: An Overall View of Mill's Utilitarianism
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In Chapter 3 of Utilitarianism, Mill is addressing the question of what motives there are to be moral. He points out that the question arises whenever a person is called upon to adopt a standard. Customary morality, which education and opinion have consecrated, presents itself as being in itself obligatory, and when one is asked to believe that morality derives its obligation from a more general principle around which custom has not thrown the same halo, the assertion is a paradox. The specific rules, such as not to rob or murder, betray or deceive, seem to be more obligatory than simply a matter of promoting the general happiness, which is proposed as their foundation. So the question, “What motives are there to follow the utilitarian morality?” will arise until the influences that form moral character have taken the same hold of the principle of utilitarianism as they have taken of some of the rules of morality that could be derived from that principle – until the feeling of unity with our fellow creatures has become as deeply rooted in our character as the horror of crime is in an ordinarily well-brought-up young person. In the meantime, until such a happy moment arrives, the difficulty is not peculiar to the doctrine of utility, but is inherent in every attempt to analyze morality and to reduce it to principles.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- An Introduction to Mill's Utilitarian Ethics , pp. 96 - 117Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003