Mill Vs. Kant
December 2, 2008
Mill theory of utilitarianism, is based solely on the consequences of an action effecting overall happiness. Every consequence of an action according to Mill should improve overall happiness in the world. Which is pretty hard to calculate, rather to understand. If an action according to Mill improves overall happiness then the act is Moral. But that doesn’t really mean that all actions that improve overall happiness are Moral. If a person steals from an extremely rich person, and gave the money to the poor, it would increase overall happiness but does that action prove to be moral? Mill defends his theory by manipulating his readers to believe that his theory has it all worked out, but in fact i believe that Kants’ theory is more detailed then Mill’s on utility.
Kants’ Theory is based on the intention of a persons action rather then the result of the action. Which i believe makes more sense. A person should be judged by their actions, rather then the consequences of the action as Mills believes. Kants theory could be used more on a daily basis, like in the judicial system. If you had Good Will when doing the action, that is what you are supposed to be judged on. An example of this would be, a person who gave a donation to a charity, and as soon as he gave the donation that charity got robbed and the money was used to kill innocent children. The person making the donation had no intention of getting his money stolen to be used to kill children, he had the will to help the children and that robbery was out of his control. The donator should not be held responsible for the killing of the children, because his intentions were right. But Mill would defend utility by saying that the donator should be held responsible because of his donation, and the killing of the children, there was an overall decrease in happiness which made his act immoral and punishable.
Even thought Kants Theory is more sensible to me, i think that there should be a mixture of both these theories to make another one, where not only the actions are considered but also the consequences.
