Is John Stuart Mill's ulitilarianism a sound basis for his liberal feminism - Essay Example

Therefore, society’s maximisation of utility consists in the achievement of the highest possible concentration of pleasure while minimising the amount of pain deriving from any action or law. Liberal feminism as propounded by Mill appears to conflict with some of the ideas advocated by utilitarianism; however, once thoroughly considered it does harmonise with his theory of utilitarianism. The theory of utilitarianism contains a theory of equality as it advocates that transfers of utility or happiness can and should only occur to the extent that marginal (that is, each additional increment of) utility for those who gain equals that of those who lose pleasure from the transfer.

In conjunction with Liberal Feminism it means that no male should gain pleasure at the expense of a greater loss of pleasure by a woman. It treats everyone equally and without bias, male or female; but contained in equal treatment is the fact that it regards no one individually, and measures utility only quantitatively. Its principle of equal consideration of interests dictates that qualitative concerns (such as reasons why an action might be pleasing to a person) are not to be involved in this aspect of the utilitarian principle (Harsanyi, 1975, cited in Sen, 1979).

According to this, egalitarianism is a fundamental principle of the theory of utilitarianism, and it advocates liberal feminism only as far as liberal feminism is itself an egalitarian principle. Theories of rights and justice are less overtly advocated by the principle, as it regards no one as special but explicitly demands only that happiness be maximised. In practice, however, rights of humans often do come into play because of a fundamental similarity among them that is usually assumed when dealing with large groups.

Therefore, it is often believed that in general people will accrue a similar amount of pleasure from a given action, so each person therefore (in absence of or blindness