1001Philosophers

Jeremy Bentham vs John Stuart Mill vs Henry Sidgwick

Bentham, Mill, and Sidgwick are the three foundational figures of classical utilitarianism. Mill was educated by his father James Mill on strict Benthamite lines and was the most important reformer of Bentham's program; Sidgwick produced in The Methods of Ethics the most rigorous nineteenth-century systematization of the utilitarian framework.

Key differences at a glance

Jeremy BenthamJohn Stuart MillHenry Sidgwick
Higher and lower pleasures Pleasures differ only in quantity; pushpin equals poetry.Higher pleasures (intellectual, aesthetic) outrank lower.Quality reducible to preference of competent judges; central but contested.
Method Felicific calculus applied to legal and institutional reform.Refinement of utilitarian principles with concern for liberty.Systematic analysis comparing utilitarianism with rivals.
Relation to other ethical methods Reject natural rights as nonsense upon stilts.Reconcile utility with liberty and individuality.Find egoism and utilitarianism finally irreconcilable without religion.
Verdict on the framework Confident: utility is the master principle.Reformist: utilitarianism completed by liberty and dignity.Anxious: the dualism of practical reason cannot be resolved.

Biographical facts

Jeremy BenthamJohn Stuart MillHenry Sidgwick
Dates 1748 – 18321806 – 18731838 – 1900
Nationality EnglishBritishEnglish
Era ModernModernModern
Profile Jeremy Bentham →John Stuart Mill →Henry Sidgwick →

Where they agree

All three held that the morality of an action is determined by its consequences for human welfare, all three treated happiness as the only thing valuable in itself, and all three used utilitarian reasoning as a tool for legal, political, and social reform. Each treated philosophical work as continuous with practical politics rather than as a purely academic exercise.

Where they disagree

Bentham held that pleasures differ only quantitatively and that the felicific calculus could in principle measure them. Mill rejected this in favor of a qualitative distinction between higher and lower pleasures, with competent judges as the criterion. Sidgwick worked through the philosophical foundations more carefully than either: he distinguished egoism, intuitionism, and utilitarianism as the three methods of ethics, and concluded — to his own dissatisfaction — that the principles of egoism and utilitarianism could not be philosophically reconciled without appeal to a religious postulate. Where Bentham legislates and Mill humanizes, Sidgwick worries.

Representative quotes

Jeremy Bentham

  • “Priestley was the first (unless it was Beccaria ) who taught my lips to pronounce this sacred truth — that the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.”

    Extracts from Bentham's Commonplace Book", in Collected Works , x, p. 142; He credits Priestley in his Essay on the First Principles of Government (1768) or Beccaria with inspiring his use of the phrase, often paraphrased as " The greatest good for the greatest number ", but the statement "the greatest happiness for the greatest number" actually originates with Francis Hutcheson , in his Inquiry c

  • “Create all the happiness you are able to create: remove all the misery you are able to remove. Every day will allow you to add something to the pleasure of others, or to diminish something of their pains . And for every grain of enjoyment you sow in the bosom of another, you shall find a harvest in your own bosom; while every sorrow which you pluck out from the thoughts and feelings of a fellow creature shall be replaced by beautiful peace and joy in the sanctuary of your soul .”

    Advice to a young girl (22 June 1830)

  • “Advice to a young girl (22 June 1830)”

    Create all the happiness you are able to create: remove all the misery you are able to remove. Every day will allow you to add something to the pleasure of others, or to diminish something of their pains . And for every grain of enjoyment you sow in the bosom of another, you shall find a harvest in your own bosom; while every sorrow which you pluck out from the thoughts and feelings of a fellow cr

John Stuart Mill

  • “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”

    Ch. 2

  • “He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.”

    Ch. II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion

  • “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”

    Ch. II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion

Henry Sidgwick

  • “The good of any one individual is of no more importance, from the point of view of the universe, than the good of any other.”

    Book 3, chapter 13, section 3 (7th ed., 1907)

  • “Book 3, chapter 13, section 3 (7th ed., 1907)”

    The good of any one individual is of no more importance, from the point of view...of the Universe, than the good of any other ; unless, that is, there are special grounds for believing that more good is likely to be realized in the one case than in the other.

  • “Each person is morally obliged to regard the good of anyone else as much as his own good, except when he judges it to be less, when impartially viewed, or less certainly knowable or attainable by him.”

    Book 3, chapter 13, section 3 (7th ed., 1907)

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