Transcript John Stuart Mill 1806-1873

John Stuart Mill 1806-1873
Believed that
happiness,
not pleasure,
should be the
standard of
utility.
Happiness
Advantages
Disadvantages
A higher standard, more
specific to humans
More difficult to measure
About realization of goals
Competing conceptions of
happiness
John Stuart Mill’s Adjustments to
Utilitarianism
• Mill argues that we must consider the
quality of the happiness, not merely the
quantity (Bentham).
• For example, some might find happiness
with a pitcher of soda and a pizza. Others
may find happiness watching a fine
Shakespearean play. The quality of
happiness is greater with the latter.
Mill’s Quality Arguments
“It is better (happier) 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.”
Criticisms of Utilitarianism
• Robert Nozick
• “The Experience Machine”
• Would you plug in? What else can matter
to us, other than how our lives feel from
the inside?
“The Experience Machine” Continued
• The fact that people are reluctant to plug
in means that at the very least, humanity
values the truthfulness of its experiences.
• What matters is really (e.g.) having a
friend, or writing a good book, rather than
believing that one has a friend or has
written a good book.