In the first chapter of Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill provides an overview of the general problems involved in the formation of a philosophy of morality and, in particular, the utilitarian philosophy. In Mill’s view, moral philosophers have made “little progress…respecting the criterion of right and wrong” (115). Mill argues that the “foundation of morality,” or those basic principles upon which morals are based, lacks clarity since the initial Greek philosophers first began their investigations of morality and not much has happened in many years.

Mill explains that most moral philosophy falls into two different schools of thought: the inductive school of ethics and the intuitive school of ethics. Intuitive ethicists hold that all moral laws are based upon a group of moral principles which all individuals know “a priori,” or unrelated to any specific experience they might have. Inductive ethicists also believe in the existence of a set of general moral principles, but they also believe that individuals must discover these principles through “observation and experience” (116). While both schools of moral thought contend that a set of principles guide morality, Mill writes that neither has attempted to define what these principles are.

In Utilitarianism, Mill aims to establish the foundation of these primary principles, upon which all moral decisions are based.