How Does Mill Think Utilitarianism Accounts for the Idea That

question 611

Multiple Choice

How does Mill think utilitarianism accounts for the idea that people have rights?

• A) Rights are derived from laws, and utilitarianism requires that laws exist because the absence of laws would not promote the general happiness.
• B) People have a right to something when it is especially important, in terms of the general happiness, that the person be defended in the ability to have or do that thing.
• C) In societies where people have come to believe that they have rights to certain things, people would be unhappy if others did not go along with the idea that certain obligations give rise to rights.
• D) Rights are something about which people feel especially strongly, and so violating people's rights produces more unhappiness than other kinds of actions.

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Definitions:

Diminishing

A principle often referring to diminishing returns, where additional inputs result in progressively smaller increases in output.

Marginal Product

The additional output resulting from the use of one more unit of a production input, holding all other inputs constant.

Production Function

An economic model that describes the relationship between the inputs a firm uses and the output it creates.

Competitive

Relates to a market situation where multiple sellers are trying to appeal to the same customers, often leading to innovation and better prices.