Mill Utilitarianism Paper

Description

Write a paper, of around 900 and no more than 1000 words, answering the following prompt: Using JS Mill’s texts, describe the moral theory of utilitarianism.  After doing this, describe the difference between act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism.  Use your own original case to illustrate the difference between act- and rule-utilitarianism.  In other words, describe a case where the two theories will give different results.  Assignments must be submitted on Blackboard, as a DOC or DOCx file. Citations do not have to be “officially” formatted, but when using material from a source, it is essential to add a footnote listing the title and section of the work you’re referencing.   Secondary material is not necessary to answer either of the question above.  Do not use secondary sources unless you think it is absolutely necessary. This paper is worth a good chunk of your grade, so I offer some guidelines below: You should be able to state, in one or two sentences, the basic goal of your paper.  It is a good idea to do this right away, in your introductory paragraph. When you have the space, it’s always good to illustrate key points with examples.  You can say something true about Kant’s views, but until I see you give a case or example, I won’t know whether you completely understand the thing you’ve just said.   Relatedly, don’t worry about including a concluding paragraph. You only have 900 words, don’t fill up space reminding me of what you’ve already said. Moreover, you should examine each paragraph of your essay and ask: is this material necessary to achieve my basic goal?  If not, it is almost certainly material you should cut out of the paper. Make sure you are directly answering your chosen essay question.  Do not use the question as an opportunity to discuss other things you may be interested in, and check carefully to make sure you’ve read and understood the basic requirements I list.  If you have any questions at all, shoot me an email! Write as clearly and straightforwardly as possible.  Resist, at all times, the temptation to use jargon when plain English will do.  Of course, there is key course terminology (“utilitarianism”, etc) which is contained in the slides/readings and which you can use, but definitely avoid adding more jargon if you don’t need to.  I am interested in the quality of your ideas, and not whether you can dress them up in “academic-speak”. Structure your paper.  Deal with each sub-topic in order, and explicitly say when you’re moving on to the next topic.  “Having given a detailed exposition of rule-utilitarianism, I’ll now go on to describe where you can find support for it in Mill’s theory.”   This is called signposting: not only should you keep sub-topics separate, you should explicitly inform your reader when you are moving to the next sub-topic. You can use first-personal pronouns and language; you don’t need to pretend to be a disembodied voice.  There are your ideas, feel free to label them as such! Good English grammar and spelling are essential.  Poor grammar will result in a penalty, so be sure to check carefully.