@mizztaurus86,
mizztaurus86 wrote:
I know that utilitarianism is a theory holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes utility, usually defined as maximizing happiness and reducing suffering. John Stuart Mill unlike Jeremy Bentham argues that intellectual and moral pleasures (higher pleasures) are superior to more physical forms of pleasure (lower pleasures). Mill distinguishes between happiness and contentment, claiming that the former is of higher value than the latter.
i know that i'm probably just doing your homework for you, but i think that JSM's thought was important enough to Western societies' issues to deserve an answer/partial explication on this public forum -- also, i think my answer is probably too late to help you pass your test:
Jeremy B's definition of utility was based on an individual's experience of maximized pleasure. JSM reasoned, commonsensically, that the conditions of any individual's long-term happiness could only maintain itself, socially, when
every individual's happiness was protected [ie stabilized] by social equality.
JSM both projected and hoped that lawful equality and social communication would yield class cooperation, but that approach has not been fruitful.
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