At the core of “Utilitarianism” is the argument that the ultimate end of human actions–what purpose or goal humans hope to achieve when humans act–is to achieve happiness. For Mill, the fact that happiness is the goal of all action is connected with definitions of morality, and he believes that morality is synonymous with whatever ultimate end humans hope to achieve with our decisions and behavior. Mill argues that happiness is the ultimate end that humans desire; therefore, actions are moral whenever they help humans achieve that ultimate end, and immoral whenever they go against it.

In Chapter 2, Mill formulates this idea in what he calls the “Utility Principle.” He also refers to his philosophy by Jeremy Bentham’s name for the idea: the “greatest happiness principle.” According to the principle of utility, “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (121). For Mill, happiness essentially refers to pleasure, while the reverse of happiness essentially refers to pain. As humans act so as to achieve pleasure and reduce pain, Mill argues that morality is based around improving pleasure and avoiding harm.

Mill is careful to clarify that though

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