SOURCE: “Mill's Moral View,” in The Moral Philosophy of John Stuart Mill: Toward Modifications of Contemporary Utilitarianism, Longwood Academic, 1991, pp. 23-53.

In the following essay, Strasser evaluates Mill's moral stance and characterizes Mill primarily as an “act-utilitarian.”

Both the quantity and the quality of pleasures must be considered in utility calculations. However, Mill's theory needs further explication, since we must discuss whose happiness should be promoted. For example, Mill might claim that an individual acts rightly if her action promotes her own happiness. Or, he might claim that an individual acts rightly if her action promotes the happiness of the society in which she lives. Mill chooses neither of these, instead suggesting that the promotion of humankind's utility is paramount.

To make matters more complicated, Mill writes ambiguously when he says that actions are morally right insofar as they promote happiness. He might mean that an agent acts...