PHI 101: Study Questions on Mill

1. Mill talks a lot about promoting happiness.  This might make you think that Mill is saying the same thing as Aristotle, but in fact that would be a mistake.  Whose happiness is to be aimed at when you make your decisions, according to Aristotle?  Whose happiness is to be aimed at according to Mill?
2. If someone were to object to Mill's theory by saying that he is promoting an animalistic lifestyle of nothing but sex, drugs, and drunken debauchery for everyone, what would Mill say in response?
3. If someone were to object to Mill's theory by saying it is totally impractical because it requires a person to figure out all the consequences of every little action before the person can know what is right and what is wrong, how would Mill respond?
4. According to Mill what would motivate anyone to do the right thing?  (See Chapter 3)
5. In Chapter 4, Mill tries to get us to believe his theory is correct.  The argument may not be very clear overall, but a major part of it is fairly easy to follow, and in that part you should notice that Mill sounds very much like Aristotle.  Describe this part.