The satisfaction derived from that is by reason of good will towards the common man and not some universal pleasure felt by all men.
But what about pain? Is Mills seems to be stating that happiness is the absence of pain. But is not some pain beneficial? Our reaction to spoiled milk that prevents us from drinking it for example. Wait, perhaps there are levels of pain that need to be analyzed as well. Good pain vs. Bad pain, there is certainly some credence there. Is there good pleasure and bad pleasure? According to Mills that should be true, yet he does not seem to define it so. Pain is also part of experience so in the experience of pain are the beginnings of the knowledge of pleasure, and perhaps the distinction between higher and lower pleasures that Mills is putting forth.
Yet does that not make pain also a component of the happiness equation? In essence Mills is more properly stating that the equation of happiness is some level of existence between pleasure and pain. This is especially true when one considers that his view of the more learned man is one of more discontentment than...
To do as you would be done by, and to love your neighbour as yourself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality. (Mills)
Alas, as with many philosophies and philosopher, Mills is dealing with ideal states and superlatives and giving little credence to observable facts and reality. To be practical or useful a philosophy must address a wider range of variables and not merely force a single interpretation on a very complex structure, such as pleasure, and then use that understanding to conform to the ideal of happiness. While admirable in scope, Mills philosophy becomes a contrived and ethnocentric statement with little relevance to his century or ours. Without taking into account the varieties of experience of all humans to complete a universal philosophy, Mills falls short of expectations with his Utilitarianism.
Works Cited
Mills, John Stuart. "Utilitarainsim." Utilitarianism Resources. 2007. 13 Feb 2008 http://www.utilitarianism.com.
