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Chapter 2 Study Questions
Bioethics Chapter 2 Study Questions
1.What does Mill mean by “Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than
a pig satisfied?”
- Means that nobody wishes to drop down to a lower grade of
existence in order to escape the pressures of human life
- this would make higher pleasures impossible
- humans are able to experience happiness at different levels (ex. A
pig may be happy rolling in shit, but is it really the same level as the
human satisfaction of winning an award they worked hard for?)
- he cannot understand how somebody could want to live a life at a
lower status in order to achieve comfort
- he is saying that there are different levels of happiness and, given
the opportunity, the individual will choose the one that gives them the
greatest amount of satisfaction
- Mill believes that pleasures on the mind are considered higher
raining emotions and it includes pleasures on intellect, imagination
and the appreciation of beauty (sensational pleasure is not as rich as
that which is intellectually stimulating
- pleasures can be measured in quality and quantity
- lower and inferior being indulged glutton
- higher and superior ones found in such experiences as the
search for knowledge and appreciation for life
2.How does Mill respond to the charge that utilitarianism is a pig
philosophy?
- distinguish between higher and lower pleasures. He writes: “…some
kinds of pleasure are more desirable and more valuable than others. It
would be absurd that while, in estimating all other things, quality is
considered as well as quantity, the estimation of pleasures should be
supposed to depend on quantity alone."
[1]
Higher pleasures include
pleasures of the human mind: pleasures of the intellect, imagination,
appreciation of beauty, and other