Status Updates From Utilitarism

“Let us take into consideration, no longer the person who has a confirmed will to do right, but him in whom that virtuous will is still feeble, conquerable by temptation… Only by making the person desire virtue… by associating the doing right with pleasure, or the doing wrong with pain… it is possible to call forth that will to be virtuous” bruh went full Clockwork Orange at the end of chapter 4 fr.

Like the argument of utilitarianism being something innate that forms within the conscious and is more apparent as human beings move towards civilisation… he loses me a bit when he hints it could become a religion.

Readily admitting to some of the shortfalls of utilitarianism but also showing that these shortfalls are inherent in any moral system gives me more respect for Mill, also defending these shortcomings as utilitarianism has the ability to adapt based on more information and nuances that emerge as consequences of actions give me more respect for utilitarianism as an idea.

Odious quote: “A being of higher faculties
requires more to make him happy, is capable probably of more acute suffering, and is certainly accessible to it at more points, than one of an inferior type; but in spite of these liabilities, he can never really wish to sink into what he feels to be a lower grade of existence.”

😷

This guy woulda loved Rick and Morty.

Repulsively equates suffering as a signifier of intelligence. Mill seems to be averse to see suffering as a means to self development, and purposely myopic in considering individual moral choice as an important individual freedom in society, or have a nuanced take on types of pleasures being ordinally different between individuals. Would hate to have a beer with this guy.

Makes a good point about sciences looking at the best result and looking backwards but philosophy not following the same process.