Is Mill an Anti-Hedonist? (original) (raw)
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Reinterpreting the Qualitative Hedonism Advanced by JS Mill
The Journal of Value Inquiry
contribution to happiness. But it can also be rational to prefer more of a lower pleasure, if its greater quantity outweighs its intrinsic inferiority. Sometimes competent judges will prefer one pleasure and sometimes the other, depending on how they balance quality and quantity. 3
No Philosophy for Swine: John Stuart Mill on the Quality of Pleasures
I argue that Mill introduced the distinction between quality and quantity of pleasures in order to fend off the then common charge that utilitarianism is 'a philosophy for swine' and to accommodate the (still) widespread intuition that the life of a human is better, in the sense of being intrinsically more valuable, than the life of an animal. I argue that in this he fails because in order to do successfully he would have to show not only that the life of a human is preferable to that of an animal on hedonistic grounds, but also that it is in some sense nobler or more dignified to be a human, which he cannot do without tacitly presupposing non-hedonistic standards of what it means to lead a good life.
Hedonistic Values: The term 'Hedonism' derives its origin from the Latin word hedone which means pleasure. This implises that hedonistic values subsists in pleasure,i.e, pleasure is the highest good.This is how man augments his actions with a view to derive maximum pleasure. The exponents of hedonism are J.S. Mill, James Bentham, David Hume andEpicurians. These thinkers assert that pleasure if the ultimate objective or SummumBonum of life. So it is an obvious phenomenon that according to these thinkers man always hankers after pleasure and avoid pain. Again according to these thinkers pleasure is that quality of mental process which man gets after the successful completion of an action entailing pleasurable perception with regard to a stupendous fortune.1 In view of the above we shall quote here the views of Bentham and Mill which are elucidated as follows. ``Bentham observes``Nature has placed mankind under the sovereign masters, viz , pleasure and pain; that man always seeks pleasure and pain.''2It is because of pleasure and pain only we do what we ought to do and what we shall do, i.e, our prospect is always some pleasure for which the action is facilitated as a means to produce pleasure thereby some pain are prevented with fruitful actions. Our motive is substantially nothing more than pleasure and pain acting in a particular manner. It is evident the , according to Bentham, actions are to be carried on keeping in view of pleasure /pain considerations. J.S. Mill also expounds``desiring a thing and finding it pleasant, aversion to it and thinking of it as painful are phenomena are entirely inseparable, rather two aspects of the same phenomena3''. The statement of Mill holds that attaining pleasure is the main objective of every action to which we are going to materialize. Hedonism emphasizes supreme importance to the heretic aspect of human nature. This revels that feeling or perceptual knowledge is the vital action of mental process.``Reason and will are good only as means of procuring and maintaining feeling; but feeling itself is good only in so far as it is pleasurable.''4 All that are not withstanding hedonistic values are basically perceptual or sensualistic by nature. In view of the above we may quote the aphorism of a British poet which are elucidated as follows.
The Critique of Mill’s Utilitarianism Concerning Virtue
HUMANITAS - Uluslararası Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 2021
Utilitarianism is based on the idea that human beings are inclined to increase pleasure and avoid pain. Although Mill agrees with this idea, he makes a distinction between higher and lower pleasures. This distinction is made considering the quality of pleasures rather than their quantity. Higher pleasures are the ones we have as a result of the employment of higher faculties. As opposed to that, lower pleasures mostly come as a result of satisfying bodily desires. Mill argues that those who are acquainted with both prefer higher pleasures over the lower pleasures. According to Mill, virtue is one of the things which bring out higher pleasures. It means that exercising virtues gives one higher pleasure and it is more valuable than other kinds of pleasure. This is why virtue is desired and considered valuable. This view is subjected to strong criticisms. In this study, some of those criticisms will be analyzed and it will be argued that although Mill’s account can be defended against ...