What is the problem justice poses for utilitarianism? Does Mill solve it?
Key readings
- Mill, J. S., Utilitarianism, London: Parker, Son & Bourn, 1863, ch. 5.
- Brink, D. O., Mill's Moral and Political Philosophy, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Fall, 2014, sect. 3.11.
- Crisp, R., Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Mill on Utilitarianism, London: Routledge, 1997, ch. 7.
- Ryan, A., The philosophy of John Stuart Mill, 2nd ed., Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998, ch. 12.
- Skorupski, J., John Stuart Mill, London: Routledge, 1989, ch. 9.
Further reading
- Berger, F. R., Happiness, Justice, and Freedom: The Moral and Political Philosophy of John Stuart Mill, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984, ch. 4.
- Lyons, D., Mill’s Theory of justice, in A. I. Goldman et al. (eds.), Values and Morals: Essays in Honor of William Frankena, Charles Stevenson, and Richard Brandt, Dordrecht: Reidel, 1978.
- Lyons, D., Benevolence and Justice, in H. B. Miller & W. H. Williams (eds.), The Limits of Utilitarianism, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982, pp. 42-70.
- Nozick, R., Anarchy, State, and Utopia, New York: Basic Books, 1974, ch. 7.
- Rawls, J., Justice as Fairness, The Philosophical Review, vol. 67, no. 2 (April, 1958), pp. 164-194.
- Can a utilitarian give weight to justice and to individual rights?
- Do you agree with Mill that “all cases of justice are also cases of expediency”?
- If one is a utilitarian, must one conclude that justice does not matter in itself?
- Is Mill’s account of the connection between justice and utility convincing?
- Is justice a problem for the Utilitarian?