“Of two pleasures. If there be one to which all or almost all who have experience of both give a decided preference… that is the more desirable pleasure. Now it is an unquestionable fact that those who are equally acquainted with, and equally capable of appreciating and enjoying, both, do give a most marked preference to the manner of existence which employs their higher faculties… It is better to be a human being satisfied than …showed first 75 words of 2270 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2270 total…and lower pleasures are, and whether higher pleasures as Mill appears to define them would be the choice for every conceivable circumstance. Mill’s utilitarianism, therefore, comes under some considerable consternation if the basis on which we are to determine utility; ie, happiness attained through the acquisition of pleasure and the avoidance of pain, remains subject to such ambiguity. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography** Bibliography · Gibbs, B., ‘Higher and Lower Pleasures’, in Philosophy, vol. 61, 1986 · Mill, John Stuart, ‘Utilitarianism’