Essay: John Stuart Mill on Frankenstein

Sample Essay

Words 1,876

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was a proponent of utilitarian and hedonistic principles but his hedonism and utilitarianism is severely restrained as compared to that of Jeremy Bentham with a number of guiding principles (Lockridge).

Mill is highly critical of the idea of moral intuition as a guide for actions, he argues that the idea that something is wrong just because it feels wrong and another thing is right because it feels right cannot be taken seriously as guiding principle because that which is moral according to one person’s intuition may be immoral according to the intuition of another person (MacIntyre).

According to this principle the ‘gut reaction’ that many people have condemning the creation of artificial life forms is entirely invalid as an argument.

Mill proposed that the moral action was one that caused the most happiness to the greatest number of people, within reason. However when that happiness derives from the unhappiness of another he deems it to be morally unsound.

This principle has been primarily formulated in response to the question of schadenfreude where a person is widely hated to the extent that the greatest amount of happiness can be derived from making that person unhappy. The ideas of unprincipled Hedonism and Utilitarianism dictate that it would be the most moral thing to visit harm upon such a person in order to achieve the greatest happiness in the greatest number of people.

Mill counters this idea saying, that this attitude of malevolence towards someone could only arise in a person who valued their own pleasure over the pleasure of others (MacIntyre).

According to these principles, it would not be moral for Dr. Frankenstein to create his monster even if his end was the happiness of the greatest number of people, due to the unhappiness visited upon the creature itself.

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