Higher and Lower Pleasures Essay

people misinterpret utilitarianism as an oppression to pleasure. In reality, a utility is known as pleasure itself. The principle of utilitarianism holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness. In this principle happiness are the intended pleasure and the absence of pain. Pleasure and the absence of pain in the utilitarian principle are required to be inherently good. Thus, actions are good when they aim to a higher level of general happiness and if an action is…

” (484) He then begins to explain that happiness is the absence of pain, and pain is the absence of pleasure. He refers to utilitarianism as the Greatest Happiness Principle. Many people that disagreed with Mill’s definition of utilitarianism insulted his work by stating it as a “doctrine worthy only of swine,” (Mill 485). Mill responds to this attack by stating “...for if the sources of pleasure were precisely the same to human beings and to swine, the rule of which is good enough for the one…

happiness of each possible action, and choose the one that results in the largest total net happiness. One should always be working to increase the total net happiness by working with the good of society in mind and participating in higher pleasures instead of lower pleasures, but puts no limit on how much one person should work to increase the net happiness of the society instead of one’s own happiness. In the case of the philanthropist, one would generally agree that he should not work as…

defines the utilitarian vocabulary and fortifies his theory of morality. Mill begins by first defining “utility” in a way that holds the word neutral from belief that it is opposed to or based solely on pleasure. He defines utility as “not something to be contradistinguished from pleasure, but pleasure itself, together with…

utilitarianism. Mill defines happiness as pleasure with the absence of pain. Mill goes on to add that there are two types of pleasure: lower and higher pleasure. Lower pleasure are bodily pleasures while higher pleasures are rational and mental pleasures. This distinction Mill makes counters the object that utilitarianism is based on any and every pleasure. So according to Mill, the definition of utilitarianism is the greatest amount of happiness, from the higher pleasures, to the greatest…

consequences are the only thing that should make you carry out an act. The foundation of utilitarianism is the Greatest Happiness Principle which has three sections. The hedonic principle is when morality is judged by this theory by the amount of aggregate pleasure or happiness and the least aggregate pain or unhappiness an act produces, the more morally admirable it is. Consequentialism is when the consequences of an action are used to calculate its moral worth. The better the consequences, the…

produce the reverse of happiness” (Mill). His argument under this principle was that the equality of pleasure comes from an individual’s higher faculties. Thus, through happiness one is able to express higher faculties. The end of his argument ends with things that people should count towards their happiness. In addition, Mills also seeks to explain the stratifications of the different types of pleasure. I believe that we should embrace utilitarianism as a moral theory and furthermore as an…

Since the beginning of time philosophers have concerned themselves with the question of morality: what is morally right or wrong? How are these moral truths known to be so? A well-known proposal to answer this moral dilemma is the notion of Utilitarianism as presented by John Stuart Mill, in Exploring Ethics. Utilitarianism attempts to solve all questions of morality by presenting criteria that must be met in every situation at all times for a decision to be the morally right thing to do.…

happiness, is incorrect. It will be shown that Mill’s argument system for deciding this is flawed, and that it lacks vital definitions that determine the basis of the argument. This essay concludes that without these proper definitions for happiness or pleasure, and without a way of quantifying these, it is impossible to objectively maximize happiness without also attempting to distribute it equally among every individual. First, we must examine and dissect Mill’s argument before we can refute…

on moral action, meaning that the morality of actions are judged according to the consequences of them, and utilitarianism is a normative moral theory that falls into this category. For Mill, whether an act is morally right or not, depends on the pleasure and pain that lies in the consequences of that action. Mill writes Utilitarianism to explain the principles of utilitarianism and to “distinguish from what it is not” (364). He also addresses common misconceptions and criticisms of the ethical…