Tentative Answer: Mill on Women

Compare his justification for attacking received opinion on women with his justification for accepting utilitarianism.

According to Mill’s theory of utilitarianism, nothing should be ruled out because it is simply “wrong,” because the ultimate goal in making decisions is seeking the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. He attacks conventional opinions on women because doing so might result in achieving this goal. He cites several potential benefits of equality for women, including better relationships between husbands and wives if wives are allowed to better exercise their faculties. Mill writes in Chapter 1, “And, as the words imply, [women] are most wanted for the things for which they are most fit; by the apportionment of which to them, the collective faculties of the two sexes can be applied on the whole with the greatest sum of valuable result.”