John Stuart Mill Utilitarianism Essay

John Stuart Mill begins his argument for utilitarianism by convincing us that, without a measure for determining moral value, we cannot accurately hold ourselves responsible as our own moral agents. In response to this concern, he outlines a moral code based on the principle of utility. As a promoter of the highest presence of pleasure and lowest presence of pain, Mill continues on to argue that the ultimate end is happiness, with all other actions and intentions having value only so far as being a means to this end. Additionally, he provides a hierarchy of happiness, to assist us in determining the worth of different pleasures. The highest pleasures, Mill says, are the ones that require the most intellectual or emotional stimulation. These pleasures may be accompanied by pain or suffering, but are ultimately worth it, and would always be chosen over contentedness by those have insight to the presence of higher pleasures. In other words, the lower a sense of pleasures a being has, the easier they can be satisfied with lower pleasures. He gives an example featuring the contrast between a human and a pig, saying that the differences in our mental capacities directly lead to distinction in how we choose to experience pleasures. While a pig
is content when provided with it’s basic needs, a human in the same position desires more. In the same way humans developed a taste for leisure activities once their basic needs were met, Mill claims that a human who is living comfortably is able to foster a desire for higher pleasures. Mill compares a person’s capacity to desire higher powers to a tender plant, saying that both can either be killed or nurtured by the lack or presence of proper sustenance.
He says of a person’s capacity for higher pleasures that “in the majority of young persons it speedily dies away if the occupations to which their position in life has devoted them, and the society into which it has thrown them, are not favorable to keeping that higher capacity.” (Mill, 10) While we are all inclined to prefer intelligence over contentedness, we must first be given both the opportunity to experience higher pleasures and the ability to continue doing so. Like a plant, children want to grow, but must be given a favorable environment to do so
in. In contrast, those who do not have the time or opportunity to indulge in higher powers revert to “inferior pleasures.” Mill states that this is not because they actually prefer these pleasures to others, but because they either never had a true appreciation for higher powers, or do not have access to them. He goes further to say that any person who chooses lower pleasure could not have ever actually experienced higher pleasures, making them incapable of effectively making the decision of which pleasure to choose.