Mill's views on higher and lower pleasures

¶ … Mill's views on higher and lower pleasure. What is his argument for his view? Develop two objections to his argument, and explain whether Mill's view can be defended in light of those objections.

John Stuart Mill's work as a philosopher has had a significant effect on the world as a whole and on utilitarianism in particular. While most individuals are inclined to think about utilitarianism as being based on the principle of maximizing happiness, Mill considered that this theory needed to be even more explicit and that it needed to assist individuals in being able to differentiate between lower and higher happiness. From his perspective, intellectual happiness is more important and should be provided with more attention while physical happiness is less important and should generally be provided with lesser attention. While utilitarianism was considered to be a strict philosophy previous to Mill, he managed to raise public awareness regarding the importance of turning it into a more complex science by influencing people to direct their resources at experiencing higher happiness.

While the masses are typically inclined to associate happiness with concepts like food, drink, sleep, and intercourse, Mill emphasizes that there is something more important than these values and that it is actually what individuals should look for in their struggle to achieve happiness. He considers that one is more likely to experience satisfaction as a result of reading a good book or as a result of watching an educational play.

1. Mill failed to understand that he expressed a subjective point in devising his theory of higher and lower happiness. As a consequence, it would be wrong for him to try and influence an individual to put across certain behavior simply because he wants him or her to do it. Freedom and the root of utilitarianism are focused on providing society as a whole with happiness, not just a particular group of individuals in the social order. Mill risks generalizing at this point, as he is inclined to impose his point-of-view without expressing interest in what others want.

It would be normal for someone to want people to achieve happiness, but this is not necessarily the case in Mill's situation, as he believes that his happiness is general and that every person on earth needs to have access to concepts that make him happy. Even with the fact that he was aware of the importance of objective thinking, Mill failed to observe that his theory acted directly against it.