What makes something right? In the study of philosophy, there are many views of what is right and what is wrong. Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill have differing viewpoints of this topic.
John Stuart Mill has a philosophy known as Utilitarianism. In this way of thinking, ethics are based on the maximization of pleasure. In other words, it's based on the consequences of a given action. The basic principle of Utilitarianism is that "actions are right in so far as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness" happiness equals the absence of pain. Mill also touches on the fact that the quality, not only the quantity of pleasure matters. He illustrates this by saying it is "better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied." This view is different than that of Kant.
Immanuel Kant's take on our motives of ethics is that we are controlled by reason. He says, "There is no possibility of thinking of anything at all in the world,......
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