John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism: Happiness and Pleasure

Personal Rating of Mill's Utilitarianism

To develop the current philosophy of Utilitarianism, Mill can be used as a reference. The sentence, "It is better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied," shows that Mill prefers to choose intellectual pleasures over sensual ones. This choice is because Mill establishes a hierarchy of pleasures. First, we have sensible pleasures, which are based on satisfaction, in contrast to intellectual pleasures, which are based on happiness.

In making this assertion, Mill believes the state also plays an important role. We start from the basis that the state must strengthen the happiness of the individual through external sanctions. External sanctions can be physical and psychological. Internal sanctions (subjective terms) are our consciousness and sense of humanity (this feeling is linked to the interest shown in others). The fact that external sanctions are subjective means we can modify them.

We must be watchful against the idea that happiness is the duty of the state, or that the state should punish people. So, we must understand that to achieve collective happiness, it is necessary to sacrifice individual happiness (like Socrates condemned), understood as a duty towards the state. Mill tends to value, as preferable, the pleasures associated with the powers that define us as human beings (intellectualism). When Mill mentions a "pig satisfied," he refers to the person who prioritizes their own interests, regardless of their overall good, and also ensures they get pleasure no matter the cost to human dignity.

Also, regarding pleasures, Utilitarianism defends a form of social hedonism, with hedonism understood as a pursuit of pleasure. Pleasure is very important because, for Mill, it is the foundation that will help us later to have discretion as to whether something is good or not. This is where logic intervenes, since Utilitarianism says that only experience gives us knowledge; that is, its epistemological base is focused on science.

Personal Rating

As a personal rating, Mill's Utilitarian theory, viewed from a group perspective, is quite interesting because society is under a mixed layer, more or less, where attempts are made to balance happiness through seeking pleasure, preferably intellectual pleasure.

As a trend, we believe that people consider our ideas important, and we all look for our interests, more or less, so it is difficult to carry out this theory because not everyone is willing to sacrifice individually for the common good.