Prep for Mill

BEFORE CLASS

Since Mill is talking about pleasures and pains for the common good of all people, I think it would be merely impossible for all to feel pleasure. But I do believe that most of the people can feel pleasure. I'm guessing that when it comes down to pleasure and pain, it will be based on how many people it affects and how many people feel pleasure or pain and not really everyone as a whole. But just certain people...? Correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm excited to read what Mill has to say and what some of his answers are. It is also nice knowing that everyone whom we have read he has also read. So we have, some-what, the same knowledge of different perspectives.



AFTER CLASS

People enjoy pleasure.
People dislike pain.

Why?

Simple, pleasure brings happiness and pain brings sadness. So of course people are going to want to be happy unless there is something seriously wrong with them. One thing that I question is are all pleasures moral? What if a group of people kill people who are different from them because it produces pleasure? Is that still moral? Because that seems to be very immoral.

What is it about an act that makes it moral and immoral? I found the question so eye opening. I think an act that is wanting to produce what is good for the common world is what makes it moral and an act that is wanting to produce what we call a vice is immoral. Since we already know, from readings before, that a vice is something that we do not want to acquire or have, to me, it makes sense to say that it is immoral. This makes me think about what makes something a virtue and what makes it not because it is like asking what is moral and what is immoral.

In class today when I heard that this is merely a person making a choice or choosing a path for a group of people, it made me think about how hard it would be and how stressful it would be. It seems hard to be able to come to one conclusion, but I think that in the end, what matters most is being able to have the most pleasure as a conclusion.