Utilitarianism

Question 1

What type of theory is it

Answer 1

Consequentialist and teleological

Question 2

What is the first principle

Answer 2

pleasure and pain are the only things that are intrinsically good; they are the only things desirable as ends in themselves

Question 3

[Chapter 2] first objection, reply one

Answer 3

It is a swine philosophy :
Though humans are driven by pleasure, their pleasures are much superior to animal ones.
“Human beings have faculties more elevated than the animal appetites” and they learn these through education.
Not just quantity but also quality of pleasure is taken into account

Question 4

[Chapter 2] first objection, reply two

Answer 4

It is a swine philosophy
Pleasure is hierarchical - Mill distinguishes between higher (mental) and lower (bodily) pleasures.
People would choose pleasure of higher quality, even if accompanied by discomfort, over a greater amount of lower pleasure; e.g. an uneducated person would not choose to become ignorant.
Mill argues that it is in the nature of higher pleasures that they are more valuable: i.e. they just are
(link to Haydn and the oyster)

Question 5

Crisp’s exploration of veridical and non-veridical experience - how do Mill and Bentham disagree

Answer 5

[meaning true/ real experience]

Bentham would say it doesn’t matter whether your experience of pleasure or pain is real or not (- i.e. if it is in a dream), because it is still pleasure or pain
Mill disagrees, for him pleasure is about your freedom - a dream of an experience doesn’t compare to it - the more real an experience, the more intense

Question 6

What is Mill’s opinion on human flourishing

Answer 6

We are working towards a summun bonum i.e. greatest good

Question 7

Explain the Haydn and the Oyster thought experiment

Answer 7

If you are a soul in heaven, waiting to be allocated your body, you would choose Haydn over an oyster because rather than having a mild life of continuous lower pleasures, you would choose a life of success, exploration and enjoyment - even if it came with a certain extent of struggle and pain

Question 8

Mill on hierarchical pleasure

Answer 8

“it is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied”

Question 9

Objection 2 - happiness is unattainable

reply 1

Answer 9

Though happiness can be illusive at times, the control of pain is very real - and the mitigation of pain becomes imperative when we see how abstract the idea of happiness can be

Question 10

Objection 2 - happiness is unattainable

reply 2

Answer 10

Mill says that happiness is possible if:
If defined as moments of rapture occurring in a life troubled by few pains
if people are educated and social arrangements are different