1. Mill describes the fundamental concepts of utilitarianism in the first
paragraph. What do you understand them to be?
2. Mill
outlines a criticism of utilitarianism in paragraph 2. Describe
what that criticism is.
3. In
paragraph 3 Mill says something about some pleasures
being “higher” than
others. What do you understand him to be saying there about that
idea?
4. In
paragraph 4 Mill outlines a test for determining
which pleasures are considered “higher” than
others. What is the test he proposes? (see also paragraph
9.)
5. In
paragraph 6, Mill says it is “better to be a human being dissatisfied
than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.
And if the fool, or the pig, are a different opinion, it is because they
only know their own side of the question.” He
says this in the context of his argument about higher
and lower pleasures in paragraphs 5-9. What
do you understand his argument about that to be?
6. What
do you understand the Greatest Happiness Principle to be (paragraph
11)?
7. In
most of the remaining paragraphs in this chapter
Mill describes several objections to the Philosophy
of Utilitarianism (“the doctrine of
utility” he sometimes calls it), and answers
each of them. Choose one of the objections he describes
and answers, then