![]() Mill has never experienced the life of one of the “lower animals”, and therefore cannot be one hundred percent sure of his opinion. “It is better to be a human being satisfied than a pig satisfied. So if the love of excitement contributes greatly to a higher pleasure with a greater value of happiness, then at least some inferior species must be capable of experiencing these higher pleasures. All he does is run around the entire house multiple times after showing him five seconds of love. It does make sense that since human beings are most definitely superior in the intellectual field that in order to achieve a greater value of happiness one must experience the higher pleasures, but who says that animals are not capable of any of the higher pleasures? “…to the love of power, or the love of excitement, both of which really do enter into and contribute to it…” (Mill, Self-Love 507) Now, I know for a fact that my dog is very capable of being excited. How one measures the justification of the distinction between the lower pleasures and the higher pleasures is based mostly on opinion. Mill believes that animals and human beings both share similar experiences when it comes to the lower pleasures, but that only human beings are capable of the higher pleasures. One will experience these pleasures multiple times daily, thus reducing the amount of satisfaction one feels when experiencing a lower pleasure. The lower pleasures are based off of sensations in which include things such as our five senses: taste, hearing, touch, sight and the sense of smell. “Few human creatures would consent to be changed into an of the lower animals for a promise of the fullest allowance of a beast’s pleasures…” (Mill, Self-Love 506) Both humans and animals are capable of experiencing these pleasures, but what Mill believes is that only Humans are capable of the higher pleasures, and therefore no intelligent human being would chose to become an animal incapable of these more valuable pleasures. Lower pleasures, according to Mill, are those based off of sensations. Mill, unlike some utilitarians (Epicureans), believes that there is an immense distinction between higher and lower pleasures. What is the exact distinction between the lower and higher pleasures? And how are higher pleasures measured as most valuable? How clearly is Mill’s view of lower and higher pleasures justified? Many of these beliefs leave the reader hanging on the edge, with further questions that need to be answered. Though thoroughly explained, one must also question the justification of these pleasures. Mill is a utilitarian philosopher who lives by the Greatest Happiness Principle, in which there is a clear distinction between both lower and higher pleasures.
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