What are the differences between Mills utilitarianism and Benthams?
Many people, usually critics, suggest that Mill held a very different view of utilitarianism to Bentham. For example, it is suggested that Mill was more inclined to rule-utilitarianism, and related concern for “rights”. However, this only displays the ignorance of such commentators on the work of Bentham, who spent many years working out a system of laws (i.e. rules) by which people could live to maximize utility. It might also be suggested that Mill was for the extending of the vote to women, as he surely was, but so too was Bentham so no disagreement can be found here. (And in any case this would not be a difference in point of theory, only in estimation of the results of that theory – see the FAQ on politics.) There does seem to be at least one point on which Mill considered his position to be different to Bentham’s, and may have been correct, and this is on the concept of “quality” of pleasures and pains which Mill introduced in chapter2 of his essay. (I have commented on this conc
