Can someone please help me understand John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism? The specific part about "lying"?

Question

Can someone please help me understand John Stuart Mill and Bernard Williams: Utilitarianism? The specific part about "lying"?

I have a final in about a week and a have and I need to understand his concepts.

"Thus it would often be expedient, for the purpose of getting over some momentary embarrassing, or attaining some object immediately useful to ourselves or others, to tell a lie."

Answer 1

Utilitarianism is the greatest good for the greatest number of people. If a lie brings about goodness then it is excused under utilitarianism unlike philosophies where principles are upheld or Kant's categorical imperative where actions are acted as if everyone should do that. In utilitarianism the end justifies the means as long as the end brings about a greater good for a greater number of people than the loss in the means. Thus it would often be alright to lie if it produced some good, even getting over embarrassment. There can be complications with lying to save embarrassment or attain some object. If the lie was found out you could get into trouble. The object in someone elses hands could potentially produce a greater good. We can't always know what actions will bring about the greater good. Hence utilitarianism isn't ideal in all situations. But it can be useful to make people think about the results of their actions and how they can make the world a better place.

Answer 2

Do you watch NCIS?

If you do, the repeat that was on last night is a perfect example...a lie to ease the grief of a young woman who'd just lost her fiancee to a murder.

Generally a lie is something to avoid, but in certain circumstances, a "gentle" lie can do more good than the truth. How many times have you heard someone tell a parent or spouse that someone's last thoughts/words had been for them?

As for his philosophy, it seems to mean "use whatever tool will provide the most benefit at the time to yourself, or others, if that means you must lie, do so." It could be considered "Machiavelli Light"

Answer 3

THE PHILOSOPHERS song (Monty Python) Monty Python Immanuel Kant replaced right into a real pissant, Who replaced into very infrequently solid, Heidegger,Heidegger,replaced right into a boozy begger, Who ought to drink you under the table, David Hume ought to out-eat, Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, And Wittgenstein replaced right into a boozy swine, Who replaced into basically as sloshed as Schlegel, there is not any longer something Nietzsche could no longer coach yer 'bout the elevating of the wrist, Socrates himself replaced into completely pissed. John Stuart Mill of his own unfastened will, On 0.5 a bottle o' shandy replaced into extremely sick, Plato they say,ought to stick it away, 0.5 a crate o' whisky daily, Aristotle,Aristotle,replaced right into a bugger for the bottle, relatively keen on his dram, And Rene Descartes replaced right into a drunken fart, "I drink subsequently i'm", particular,Socrates himself is very neglected, a gorgeous little fact seeker yet a bugger while he's pissed.

Answer 4

Utilitarianism is the same thing as terrorism. Telling lies promotes terrorism in our children and provokes them to fly SU-27s into crowds of people at air shows. It is also the same thing as Radical Islam.