Extra Credit

In the name of Allah The Beneficent The Merciful

Dear Students
Assalamualaikum,

For the students who got less than 14 marks in the mid term exam, you are strongly advised to do this short assignment...the marks for this assignment will be added to your mid term marks.  The due date is on the 20th of June, 2011.

Read the short statements on utilitarianism and answer the questions that follow.

John Stuart Mill is the most famous utilitarian.  In Utilitarianism, his most famous work, he held acts "are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse."  "By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure."  "Pleasure and the freedom from pain are the only things desirable as ends."  "All desirable things are desirable either for pleasure inherent in themselves, or as means to the promotion of pleasure and the prevention of pain."  He seems to believe that what he means by "pleasure" and "pain" is obvious.

Question 1

Evaluate and make judgment on the claim that acts "are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse" from the Islamic perspective.  

Question 2

Mill argues that "happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; that unhappiness is pain and the privation of pleasure."  "Pleasure and the freedom from pain are the only things desirable as ends."  Do you agree with these statements?  Why? 

If you don't understand, please feel free to call or contact me...All the best to you :)
I expect you to be able to distinguish happiness from pleasure and whether pain always brings unhappiness