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Immanuel Kant vs John Stuart Mill on Virtue

Kant and Mill represent the two paradigmatic alternatives to virtue ethics in modern moral philosophy and disagree on what makes virtuous action morally worthy. For Kant, an action has moral worth only when performed from duty in accordance with the categorical imperative; acting from inclination — even kindly inclination — does not yet constitute moral virtue. Mill rejects the framework: what makes any disposition matter is its tendency to produce happiness, and the systematic disposition to act for the general welfare is what virtue consists in. Where Kant prizes the will respecting the moral law, Mill prizes the character maximizing utility.

About this topic

Virtue has been a central category of ethics since the Greeks treated it as the excellence proper to a human being. Plato analyzed the cardinal virtues, Aristotle developed virtue ethics as habituated dispositions of character, and Confucian and Buddhist traditions parallel this concern with cultivated moral excellence. Medieval thinkers added the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity to the classical inheritance. The modern revival of virtue ethics in the twentieth century returned attention to character and practical wisdom as the ground of moral life.

For a side-by-side overview of the two philosophers more broadly, see the full Immanuel Kant vs John Stuart Mill comparison. To browse philosophy more widely on this theme, see the Virtue quotes hub.

Representative quotes on virtue

Immanuel Kant on virtue

  • “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”

    Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the mind of thought is drawn to them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.

  • “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.”

    Der kategorische Imperativ, der überhaupt nur aussagt, was Verbindlichkeit sei, ist: handle nach einer Maxime, welche zugleich als ein allgemeines Gesetz gelten kann.

  • “Moral Teleology supplies the deficiency in physical Teleology , and first establishes a Theology ; because the latter, if it did not borrow from the former without being observed, but were to proceed consistently, could only found a Demonology , which is incapable of any definite concept.”

    Immanuel Kant , Kant's Critique of Judgment (1892) Tr. J.H. Bernard

  • Attributed to Immanuel Kant:

    “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never merely as a means.”

  • Attributed to Immanuel Kant:

    “He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men.”

All 6 Immanuel Kant quotes on virtue →

John Stuart Mill on virtue

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

    Ch. 2

  • Attributed to John Stuart Mill:

    “The worth of a state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.”

  • Attributed to John Stuart Mill:

    “A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.”

  • Attributed to John Stuart Mill:

    “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”

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