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John Stuart Mill's Utalitaranism presentation The topic of my presentation this time is John Stuart Mill's Utalitaranism. Mill honed utilitarian into more humanistic way comparing to Jeremy Bentham's calculative way. He acknowledges there are people opting for lower pleasure, being aware of what is higher pleasure. Everyone likes to mess around, but they know messing around is not a higher pleasure even though it's what they like. Pointing out this, Mill says, "It's better to be a human being satisfied than a pig dissatisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied." That means the quality of Socrates's life is much higher than a fool and a pig, so even though there is dissatisfaction in life, his life is superior in terms of quality of pleasure. I agree with this opinion in that it recognizes haman's high ability, but it's against premise of utilitatianism because whilst Bentham holds only desire for human's pleasure is based on seeking pleasure, Mill holds human being's nobleness is based on. Whereas Bentham defines pleasure and pain as they are in terms of quantity. Mill insisted there are superiority and inferiority within a pleasure as many bottles of plain wine are inferior to a bottle of quality wine. The reason of <Hamlete> is considered superior is not that we like <Hamlete> more than lower pleasure but that it drives human into more humanistic being. As Mill sought to combine utilitarianism and rights of human, he tried to rebut the opinion utilitarianism simply divides every thing into pleasure and pain, calculating in quantity, but in the end that resulted in placing emphasis on moral ideology--human being's nobleness and individuality.
Mar 23, 2015 6:34 PM
Corrections · 4
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The topic of my presentation this time is John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism.
Mill honed utilitarian into more humanistic way comparing to Jeremy Bentham's calculative way. He acknowledges there are people opting for lower pleasure, being aware of what is higher pleasure.
Everyone likes to mess around, but they know messing around is not a higher pleasure even though it's what they like. Pointing THIS OUT, Mill says, "It's better to be a human being satisfied than a pig dissatisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied." That means the quality of Socrates's life is much higher than a fool and a pig, so even though there is dissatisfaction in life, his life is superior in terms of quality of pleasure. I agree with this opinion in that it recognizes human’s high ability, but it's against THE premise of utilitarianism because whilst Bentham CONTENDS; HUMAN desire’S ARE for human's pleasure is based on seeking pleasure, Mill REBUTS, THIS IS WHAT human being's MORALITY is based OFF.
Whereas Bentham defines pleasure and pain as they are in terms of quantity. Mill insistS theSE are EITHER superior OR inferior within THE CONCEPT OF A ‘pleasure’. IT ‘S SIMILAR TO COMPARING many bottles of plain wine OF inferior QUALITY to a SINGLE bottle of quality wine. The reason of <Hamlete> is considered superior is not that we like <Hamlete> more than A lower pleasure, BUT that SCUPLTS human’S into more humanistic being.
As Mill sought to combine utilitarianism and THE rights of human’S, he tried to REFUTE the opinion THAT; utilitarianism simply divides everything into pleasure and pain, QUANTIFING quantity, but in the end THIS resulted in placing MORE emphasis on moral ideology--human being's MORALITY and individuality.

 

NOTES:


CAPITALS = CORRECTIONS


- ‘Holds” = In academic writing, ‘Shares’ or ‘states’ or ‘argues’ = is better than ‘holds’. When writing an essay or academic writing, if your quoting someone or paraphrasing a scholar (Mill or Bentham, in this case) – always write = Mill’s contends (present-progressive tense), Bentham argues = Because, unless they had refuted their own writings, their views are still ‘present’. The difference between ‘I said and ‘mill says’ = is ‘I said” something a while ago (an event, situation or phrase) but “mill’s says” something that is still used, citied or discussed about. Academics/ scholars are always quoted as if alive and their work still relevant in academic papers. (I really hope I don’t confuse you, If you have questions about this, I can try to explain better ;)


- “HUMAN desire’S ARE for human's pleasure is based on seeking pleasure,” and “BUT that drives human’S into more humanistic being” = I understand what you mean, but I wasn’t sure if I should change them. These are my alternatives = “The idea of ‘human pleasure’ is based on the human desire of seeking pleasure” and “far from it, the emphasis is based on how such a concept of superior quality (higher pleasure) sculpts humans into more moralistic and peaceful beings” – I’m a little unfamiliar with Mill’s work, so this is my understanding of what he meant.


Everything else I tried to make a little more academic and natural, hope this helps, any questions? Feel free to ask me.

March 27, 2015
My bad *"It's better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied"
March 29, 2015
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