2: Welfare and pleasure
Welfare and ethics
Your welfare consists only in those aspects of your life that are good for you
This is distinct from what makes your life good to other people
Welfare shall be taken as (loosely) equivalent to: a person's good, self-interest, flourishing, well-being, prudential value, or
utility
Prudence - furthering your own welfare
Beneficence -furthering that of others
The notion of what makes life worth living is separate from that of what moral life consists of
Mills theory of welfare can be seen as quite independent from his utilitarianism
Bentham's account
Died 24 years before publication of Utilitarianism
Mills account of welfare can be seen as a response to the criticisms of Bentham's account by writers such as Thomas
Carlyle
Bentham's account of welfare:
An experience account
Welfare only consists of experiences
Therefore things you dont know/ dont experience cannot affect your welfare, e.g. Somebody spying on you
Hedonist - welfare is based on pleasure
Pleasure being any experience that makes you better off e.g. Drinking champagne or reading philosophy
Harm is the effective opposite of pleasure (things that make life not worth living)
Harm consists of pains e.g. Depression, boredom or fear
Pleasures and pains can be measured (numerically) (felicific calculus)and traded off against one another
Later called a 'cardinal' scale
Value determined by duration and intensity
Mill did not agree that pleasure and pain could be assigned cardinal values
Haydn and the oyster
Mill said that many had taken utilitarianism to be the 'doctrine only worthy of swine'
Because the pleasure/pain cardinal system could be applied to pigs
Mill points out that it's important to distinguish more productive overall of pleasure (for other people too) as more
worthwhile than actions which cause an equivalent increase in the person's pleasure
Haydn and the Oyster:
(simplified)
Given the choice between a full and exciting life (Haydn) yet finite at 77 years long, or the life of an Oyster, with mild
sensual pleasure, that can go on for as long as you like, which would be chosen?
By Bentham's system, the long lasting yet less intense pleasure of the oyster will eventually outweigh the finite but intense
pleasure of Haydn, so the oyster should be chosen
However many people disagree with this, claiming that the type of pleasure Haydn experiences buts his life into a
completely different category to that of the oyster
Mill understands and agrees with this objection and therefore offers an account which gives special prominence to the
more elevated experiences of human life:
Mill's Hedonism
Welfare and ethics
Your welfare consists only in those aspects of your life that are good for you
This is distinct from what makes your life good to other people
Welfare shall be taken as (loosely) equivalent to: a person's good, self-interest, flourishing, well-being, prudential value, or
utility
Prudence - furthering your own welfare
Beneficence -furthering that of others
The notion of what makes life worth living is separate from that of what moral life consists of
Mills theory of welfare can be seen as quite independent from his utilitarianism
Bentham's account
Died 24 years before publication of Utilitarianism
Mills account of welfare can be seen as a response to the criticisms of Bentham's account by writers such as Thomas
Carlyle
Bentham's account of welfare:
An experience account
Welfare only consists of experiences
Therefore things you dont know/ dont experience cannot affect your welfare, e.g. Somebody spying on you
Hedonist - welfare is based on pleasure
Pleasure being any experience that makes you better off e.g. Drinking champagne or reading philosophy
Harm is the effective opposite of pleasure (things that make life not worth living)
Harm consists of pains e.g. Depression, boredom or fear
Pleasures and pains can be measured (numerically) (felicific calculus)and traded off against one another
Later called a 'cardinal' scale
Value determined by duration and intensity
Mill did not agree that pleasure and pain could be assigned cardinal values
Haydn and the oyster
Mill said that many had taken utilitarianism to be the 'doctrine only worthy of swine'
Because the pleasure/pain cardinal system could be applied to pigs
Mill points out that it's important to distinguish more productive overall of pleasure (for other people too) as more
worthwhile than actions which cause an equivalent increase in the person's pleasure
Haydn and the Oyster:
(simplified)
Given the choice between a full and exciting life (Haydn) yet finite at 77 years long, or the life of an Oyster, with mild
sensual pleasure, that can go on for as long as you like, which would be chosen?
By Bentham's system, the long lasting yet less intense pleasure of the oyster will eventually outweigh the finite but intense
pleasure of Haydn, so the oyster should be chosen
However many people disagree with this, claiming that the type of pleasure Haydn experiences buts his life into a
completely different category to that of the oyster
Mill understands and agrees with this objection and therefore offers an account which gives special prominence to the
more elevated experiences of human life:
Mill's Hedonism
