Mill famously argued that the
ethical action is what leads to the greatest amount of happiness for the
greatest number of people. Please write an essay about Mill’s utilitarian
ethical theory that answers the following questions:
1.
Does utilitarian theory
require us to–somehow–have certain knowledge about the future? Can we
identify which actions will cause the greatest amount of happiness for the
greatest number of people without having certain knowledge of the future?
2.
Can a utilitarian consistently
reject as immoral the enslavement of a small group of people whose enslavement
brings great happiness to a much larger group of people?
3.
Do either of these two
problems (the ‘knowing the future’ problem and the ‘justification of slavery’
problem) mean that utilitarianism is an unsatisfactory ethical theory? Why or
why not?
Please ensure that your essay
addresses each component of the assigned questions and that your answer is
well-organized, uses excellent, college-level prose, and makes judicious use of
textual evidence. Your essay should be 600 words long
