Reinterpreting the qualitative hedonism advanced by J.S. Mill
Reinterpreting the qualitative hedonism advanced by J.S. Mill
One of Mill's most radical departures from Bentham is his qualitative hedonism. The distinction between 'higher' and 'lower' pleasures has aroused considerable controversy. This piece takes issue with a number of recent interpreters, most particularly Jonathan Riley and Christoph Schmidt-Petri, arguing that quality of pleasure cannot be reduced to quantity, in either finite or infinite amounts, and that there is no reason to assume that higher pleasures are always lexically preferred to lower pleasures. On the view developed, only pleasure is valuable but -- as with other things -- it is valued both for its quantity and its quality and these may be traded off against each other. It is argued that this makes better sense of a number of Mill's remarks than the rival interpretations considered.
187-201
Saunders, Ben
aed7ba9f-f519-4bbf-a554-db25b684037d
22 June 2011
Saunders, Ben
aed7ba9f-f519-4bbf-a554-db25b684037d
Saunders, Ben
(2011)
Reinterpreting the qualitative hedonism advanced by J.S. Mill.
The Journal of Value Inquiry, 45 (2), .
(doi:10.1007/s10790-011-9274-0).
Abstract
One of Mill's most radical departures from Bentham is his qualitative hedonism. The distinction between 'higher' and 'lower' pleasures has aroused considerable controversy. This piece takes issue with a number of recent interpreters, most particularly Jonathan Riley and Christoph Schmidt-Petri, arguing that quality of pleasure cannot be reduced to quantity, in either finite or infinite amounts, and that there is no reason to assume that higher pleasures are always lexically preferred to lower pleasures. On the view developed, only pleasure is valuable but -- as with other things -- it is valued both for its quantity and its quality and these may be traded off against each other. It is argued that this makes better sense of a number of Mill's remarks than the rival interpretations considered.
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Published date: 22 June 2011
Organisations:
Faculty of Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences
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Local EPrints ID: 370315
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/370315
ISSN: 0022-5363
PURE UUID: aa4f60e5-6394-4922-967d-994eebe5216d
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Date deposited: 21 Oct 2014 14:50
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:50
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