Audiobook · read by volunteers
Utilitarianism
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)
Read by D.E. Wittkower · 7 chapters · 3 h 28
About the book
What makes an action right or wrong? In Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill offers a clear and influential answer: actions are right in proportion as they promote happiness, and wrong as they produce the reverse. But he does not stop at a slogan. He asks what we mean by happiness, whether some pleasures are worth more than others, how the principle fits with justice and duty, and why anyone should accept it at all. Mill writes with unusual lucidity for a philosopher, answering objections as he goes and keeping the argument close to the practical concerns of ordinary moral life. This short work remains one of the most widely read statements of utilitarian ethics, and an ideal starting point for anyone curious about how to think about right and wrong.
Introduction
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was an English philosopher, economist and public figure, and one of the most influential thinkers of the nineteenth century. He wrote on logic, political economy, liberty and the rights of women, and he sat for a time as a member of Parliament. Utilitarianism builds on the ideas of Jeremy Bentham, a friend of Mill's father, but it modifies them in important ways.
The essay first appeared as a series of three articles in Fraser's Magazine in 1861, and was published as a book in 1863. Its five sections move from a general introduction to a definition of the principle, then to the questions of its sanction and its proof, and finally to the relation between utility and justice. Mill's best-known contribution is his claim that pleasures differ in quality as well as quantity, so that it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.
The work has been debated ever since, and it remains central to courses in ethics and political thought. Readers will find that it is more careful, and more humane, than many of its critics suppose.
This LibriVox recording has seven chapters and lasts about three and a half hours. It is read by a volunteer, and it suits anyone who wants to meet a classic of moral philosophy in its author's own words. The prose is clear enough for a first-time listener, and the argument rewards close attention. Whether you finish as a convinced utilitarian or as a sceptic, you will have met the principle in the form its best defender gave it.
Public domain
John Stuart Mill died in 1873: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text