PHIL 2070 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: John Stuart Mill
Document Summary
"so act that the rule on which thou actest would admit of being adopted as a law by all rational beings. " Crude depictions of utility (a) utility as opposed to pleasure (b) pleasure only. It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides. (ibid. ) Classic statement of the principle of utility. Mill agrees with bentham that we ought to maximize utility and minimize pain. But mill"s two-pleasures theory is supposed to favor humans over non humans, and moreover intellectual pleasures over bodily pleasures. According to mill, the grounds for preferring intellectual pleasures over bodily or sensory pleasures is that: anyone who experiences both prefers the intellectual pleasures.
