John Stuart Mill was born in London in 1806 and died in 1873. Mill was put through a very rigorous education by his father. At the age of fifteen or sixteen, Mill read a book by Bentham. This was when Mill started to come up with his idea of utility. A few years later, he started a small utilitarian society. After writing a good handful of other books, in 1863, (after first appearing in magazine form in Fraser's Magazine in 1861) Mill finished up his work on Utilitarianism. (UTM)
Mill's belief in the Utilitarianism was that happiness is the ultimate end. All humans want happiness and pursue it. There is only one main principle in life, and that is to maximize pleasure.
Mill also says that we need to treat humanity as an end in a way that they can concur with. (Foster) If someone does something wrong, they're punishment should equal the crime that they have committed. If a man steals money from another man, that money should be taken from him. If, for example, he breaks another's leg, his leg shall be broken. If he takes a man's life, his life shall be taken. Mill believes that this is the only justified way, known as the retributivist theory. This is actually respecting the criminal; giving them their just deserve. (Foster) We must treat all how we would want to be treated. We need to respect all humans.
Like any philosopher, there are arguments against Mill's teaching. Gainsborough argued against Mill's theory of happiness being the ultimate end. He says that we are all going to die at some point, so living forever can not be the goal of life. It is not possible to always be happy. The most you can do to be happy is to try and be less miserable and to minimize your unhappiness. (Foster) Life is full of ups and downs. These downs come ...