 Although this philosophy has a long tradition, Mill's account is primarily influenced by Jeremy Bentham and Mill's father James Mill.John Stuart Mill believed in the philosophy of "utilitarianism", which he would describe as the principle that holds "that actions are right in the proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness".By "happiness" he means, "intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure".