1MILL ON JUSTICE: CHAPTER 5 of UTILITARIANISM Lecture Notes Dick Arneson Philosophy 13 Fall, 2005 Some people hold that utilitarianism is incompatible with justice and objectionable for that reason. Utilitarianism according to its critics can imply that we should in certain situations treat people unfairly, violate their moral rights. Utilitarianism "does not take seriously the distinction between persons," some say. The quoted slogan alludes to the thought that utilitarianism extends what is acceptable in choices that one person makes for her own life to situations of conflict of interest among distinct persons. It is prudent, and permissible, for me to accept the modest pain of going to the dentist now to avoid the bigger pain of a toothache later, but utilitarianism holds that if I can gain for Smith relief of a pain equivalent to toothache by imposing on Jones a smaller pain equivalent to going to the dentist and no other option I can choose produces more utility than I should impose on Jones. In chapter 5 of Utilitarianism J. S. Mill takes up the supposed conflict between utilitarianism and justice. His argument is difficult, complex, and subtle. In the end the question arises whether he meets the objection or evades it. Mill takes the problem to be that the sentiment of justice feels to most of us more compelling and morally more authoritative than the sentiment of benevolence associated with utilitarianism. Mill thinks that “people are in general willing enough to allow that objectively the dictates of justice coincide with a part of the field of general expediency." Still, the "subjective mental feeling of justice” is usually more imperative in its demands that the feeling "which commonly attaches to simple expediency" (p. 42). We begin by asking what is the common quality that unites all modes of conduct and policy we deem just. It is thought normally to be unjust to (a) violate someone's legal rights, at least those that ought to be his rights, (b) not to treat people as they deserve, (c) to break faith with anyone, (d) to be partial in those situations where impartiality is required, and (e) to treat people unequally, though people disagree wildly as to what sort of equality might be morally required. Mill cannot find a common thread here, so breaks off this discussion and starts another. Mill looks at the history of usage of the word and finds the idea of justice tied to the idea of conformity to law, at least law as it ought to be. We call conduct unjust that we do not think should be enforced by law, but what is thought unjust is always thought to be fit for punishment, either by law, or public opinion, or by pangs of conscience. But this is not the specific idea of injustice but the more general idea of a moral wrong. An act that is morally wrong is one that ought to be punished somehow (and an act is morally right, rather than2merely nice, if not doing that act would be morally wrong). To get the specific idea of injustice we add to the idea of a wrong act a particular person or persons wronged by that wrong act. Mill states, "Justice implies something which it is not only right to do, and wrong not to do, but which some individual person can claim from us as his moral right" (p. 49). Example that illustrates Mill's point: Consider Minimally Decent Samaritanism: acting in an emergency situation to save someone's life when one can do so at small cost and risk to oneself. Some people think that Minimally Decent Samaritanism is conduct one ought to do, but if one does not do it, one has maybe been uncharitable, but violates no right of the person who is not saved from death. Others think that not only is failure to conform to the norm of Minimally Decent Samaritanism wrong, but it also violates a right that the person who could be saved has to the easy rescue. The people who hold the latter view will say that failing to be a Minimally Decent Samaritan is unjust; those who hold the former view will deny such conduct is unjust. Next, Mill asks what is the relation of justice so construed to utility. He gives several arguments against affirming that justice is a norm that should have independent moral force against the idea of the general welfare. 1. The origin of justice is a primitive instinct. Of the sense of justice he asserts that "the sentiment itself does not arise from anything which would commonly or correctly be termed an idea of expediency, but that, though the sentiment does not, whatever is moral in it does" (p. 50). He goes on to say that the desire to punish someone who harms a person grows out of two primitive sentiments--the instinct of self-defense and the feeling of sympathy. We want to harm those we see as threatening to harm us and those with whom we sympathize. There isn't anything moral in these instincts, they need to be tamed and shaped by morality, which Mill identifies with the principle of utility. When that is done, I only want to retaliate against those who threaten me and those near and dear to me with harm if I see that retaliating promotes the general welfare (happiness) and does not merely satisfy my desire for retaliation. 2. Justice is an ambiguous oracle. Injustice occurs when there is a violation of some person's right. When someone has a right to something, he has "a valid claim on society to defend him in the possession of it" (p. 52). But rights claims multiply. On almost any side of any controversial issue, people on all sides of the dispute claim they have a right to win. Mill gives examples. Some say punishment is just only when done to benefit the person punished; others say this would be wrong and that punishment is acceptable only when needed to protect the legitimate interests of other people, others say punishment is always unjust. Some say the punishment should be exactly proportioned or matched to3the severity of the crime; others say that the only good justification for punishment is that it is necessary to deter that criminal or others from committing further crimes. Mill also gives the example of seemingly intractable disputes about just wages. A third example is taxation: again opposed views that cannot all be correct present themselves as right and just. If we wish to respect and protect people's rights, how can we decide what people's rights are? Mill says only utility can reasonably resolve these conflicting claims. The rights claim that is valid