I was on the same page with you, Cecilia, about the "pig pleasures" --
Mill also said, in response to Carlyle, that there are pleasures suited
to a pig and pleasures suited to a man. This is just the first thing
that seemed to come to mind when Lucy-Ruth brought up that idea. As he
said in the quotation you provided, we have to define "pleasure" here,
which could just as easily be the life of the mind as of the body.
This illuminates one of the problems with utilitarianism in general --
it doesn't really provide a value system. Words such as "pleasure" and
"the greatest good" are too vague in themselves, and once defined,
you've introduced a hierarchy of values that precedes utilitarianism or
directs so -- so you're no longer a strict utilitarian.
Jim
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Received on Sun Jun 8 00:24:52 2003
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