J. S. Mill's Conception of Utility

Utilitas 22 (1):52-69 (2010)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Mill's most famous departure from Bentham is his distinction between higher and lower pleasures. This article argues that quality and quantity are independent and irreducible properties of pleasures that may be traded off against each other – as in the case of quality and quantity of wine. I argue that Mill is not committed to thinking that there are two distinct kinds of pleasure, or that ‘higher pleasures’ lexically dominate lower ones, and that the distinction is compatible with hedonism. I show how this interpretation not only makes sense of Mill but allows him to respond to famous problems, such as Crisp's Haydn and the oyster and Nozick's experience machine.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

J. S. mill's conception of utility.Ben Saunders - 2010 - Utilitas 22 (1):52-69.
J. S. Mill's Language of Pleasures.Robert W. Hoag - 1992 - Utilitas 4 (2):247-278.
Higher and Lower Pleasures.Benjamin Gibbs - 1986 - Philosophy 61 (235):31 - 59.
A Defence of Mill's Qualitative Hedonism.Rex Martin - 1972 - Philosophy 47 (180):140 - 151.
Mill on Quality and Quantity.C. Schmidt–Petri - 2003 - Philosophical Quarterly 53 (210):102-104.
Mill on quality and quantity.C. Schmidt–Petri - 2003 - Philosophical Quarterly 53 (210):102–104.
J. S. mill's revisionist utilitarianism.Don Habibi - 1998 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 6 (1):89 – 114.
Was Mill a Moral Scientist?S. J. Heans - 1992 - Philosophy 67 (259):81 - 101.

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-02-21

Downloads
47 (#298,872)

6 months
3 (#445,838)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Ben Saunders
University of Southampton

Citations of this work

Reformulating Mill’s Harm Principle.Ben Saunders - 2016 - Mind 125 (500):1005-1032.
J. S. Mill’s hedonism: activism, experientialism and eudaimonism.Tim Beaumont - 2018 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 26 (3):452-474.
Blogger Engagement Ethics: Dialogic Civility in a Digital Era.Jeremy Langett - 2013 - Journal of Mass Media Ethics 28 (2):79-90.

Add more citations

References found in this work

A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition.John Rawls - 1999 - Harvard University Press.
Anarchy, State, and Utopia.Robert Nozick - 1974 - Philosophy 52 (199):102-105.
Lectures on the history of political philosophy.John Rawls - 2007 - Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Edited by Samuel Richard Freeman.
Five Types of Ethical Theory.C. D. Broad - 1930 - Humana Mente 5 (19):463-465.

View all 17 references / Add more references