The Pleasure Of Books Essay

• Do you agree with Mill’s assertion that some pleasures are higher than others? What would you consider higher and lower pleasures? JS Mill's has been depicted as one of the most prominent English-speaking philosophers of the 19th century, Mills wrote “it is better to be human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. Simply meaning a human is higher than a pig and Socrates is higher than a fool. Mills explains how to differentiate between higher- and lower-attributes of pleasures. I can somewhat agree with Mills that some pleasures could be considered higher than others. I believe that Mills is debating that a superior pleasure is more of an experience, such as reading, traveling the world, attending an opera, attaining personal goals or discussing philosophy, whereas lower pleasures focuses mainly on the actual physical pleasures such as eating, drinking or sexual pleasures. However, in Mills assertion…

The Summa Contra Gentiles as well as the Summa Theologiae are among Thomas Aquinas’ best-known books. Both of these texts have been dated to the latter years of Aquinas’ life as he was approaching his death. A revered scholar, Aquinas works have been the subject of several debates on the purpose of his writings, their intended audience, and their relation to each other. Thomas’ writings span several literary genres, ranging from scriptural commentaries to Aristotelian commentaries as well as…

Three different takes on the role of pleasure/pleasantness in Utilitarian Theory Hedonistic (Bentham): "Quantity of pleasure being equal, the experience of playing pushpin was as good as that of reading poetry." (1973: 12) Bentham main focus was on quantity, that he actually had an equation that would figure out someone's level of pleasure. Pushpin is a game and Bentham states that this game has the same level of pleasure as if you were reading poetry. Example: If reading a book is good,…

Aristotle, pleasure can be created by certain natural onsets (emotions) that engage a person’s soul. In On Rhetoric near the end of Book 1, Aristotle defines pleasure as “a certain movement of the mind and a collective organization of sensual perception reaching into [an individual’s] fundamental nature” (87). He goes on to say that “movement into a natural state is thus necessarily pleasurable for the most part, and especially whenever a natural process has recovered its own natural state”…

Towards the end of Book IX, now that Socrates and Glaucon have decided that the lives of reason-lovers are happiest compared to the lives of honor-lovers or money-lovers, Socrates provides another argument for Glaucon. His next argument discusses philosophers’ pleasures compared to other pleasures. Socrates argues that pleasures of a philosopher are real, true pleasures, but all other pleasures are just a relief from pain. These other pleasures are only temporary and the desires for them will…

aimed at joining individual rights with the utilitarian theory of greatest happiness. His book, On Liberty, valued the importance of freedom as long it as causes no harm to others. Bentham wanted to maximize utility or happiness in every situation but Mills thinks we should maximize utility in the long run. It will cause greater happiness in the future if we respect each other’s rights. Mill’s wrote a long essay called, Utilitarianism, which showed there is way to distinguish higher pleasures…

In his short book, Roland Barthes enabled a conversation about how and why we engage with a text. It establishes and outlines two categories of text and yet the two classifications of pleasure and bliss are still unable to fully remove themselves from the other. One cannot find bliss in the text without first finding pleasure. It seems to be more of a two-step process to achieving bliss through a text rather than it instantly becoming a blissful text. It is not a dismissal of the classifications…

deficiency with regard to some action or emotion. Most importantly, virtue brings upon friendship since virtue is the parent and preserver of friendship and without virtue, friendship cannot exist at all. Aristotle’s aristotelian view on friendship in the Nicomachean Ethics Books 8 & 9 contrasts and compares with Cicero’s eclectic view on friendship in De Amicitia in numerous ways. Aristotle defines friendship as two people wishing for the goodwill of the other with them both being aware of it.…

distinguish the difference between high and low pleasures. This difference would be separated into intellectual pleasures, such as reading a good book, and sensory pleasures, like eating a savory piece of chocolate. While creating this divide between high and low pleasures, Mill explains that in an intellectual pleasure you would receive not a higher quantity but a higher quality of pleasure. Basically in layman 's terms Mill is saying that no matter how much chocolate you eat or how good it…

Fahrenheit 451 is a novel inanimate object that serves important purposes that tie into the theme of the book. Fire is one of many inanimate objects in this novel. Fire in Fahrenheit 451 is an inanimate objects with many purposes that change as the story goes on that also tie into the story. At the beginning fire is used to burn the books inside of house that weren't supposed to be there in the first place. They haven't only burned the books, but they also burnt all of the items…