Name: Kiarra Gypsy S.

Olaran
Course & Section: BSA2

Activity #2
` Utilitarianism

Answer in full sentences.

1. Are all pleasures commensurable? Can they be evaluated on a single scale? Can some
goods, like friendships, be balanced against other goods, like money?
- All pleasures are not commensurable, because money is not the measure of a
person’s happiness. Yes, there are people who are happy when they have a lot
of money, but there are also people who cannot measure their happiness
because every person has different happiness.

2. Mill revises utilitarianism by arguing for “higher” pleasures. Which pleasures are higher?
- A pleasure is of higher quality if people would prefer it over another pleasure,
even if it causes discomfort, and if they would not exchange it for more of the
other pleasure.

3. Mill proposes that “higher” pleasures are those preferred by the majority of people. Do
you agree that this is a good way of distinguishing between higher and lower pleasures?
- Majority of people live mundane and uninteresting lives, finding pleasure in
eating, drinking, buying, or consuming items, being amused, and working at
unsatisfactory employment. So they aren't what I consider greater pleasures, like
thinking, reasoning, managing or operating a business, or working in a complex
career that you enjoy, like doctor, engineer, computer programmer and analyst,
actor, lawyer, scientist, and so on. Minority occupations, not majority
professions, are where you can find truly higher pleasures, as indicated above,
hence higher pleasures are truly the property of a minority of people or
population.

4. Does utilitarianism questions individual rights? What if violating the civil rights of a
minority increases the sum total of pleasure of the majority?
- Yes, utilitarianism questions individual rights. Pleasure is not a right and would
be secondary to a right if a citizen. For example a famous actor is to hold a
performance. A few thousand spectators pleasure is anticipated. Then the actor
receives a death threat and decides to cancel the performance. The pleasure of
the audience was secondary to the right to security of the individual.

5. Are all pleasures comparable, even objectionable pleasures? What if the majority
derives pleasure from being sexist?
- No, because not all pleasures are good, particularly when they are excessive.
Even unpleasant pleasures are not the same, because we are capable of
seeking and seeking higher intellectual pleasures. Because of a desire to
achieve more, what is a pleasure for us today may not be a pleasure tomorrow.
Although the majority of people enjoy being sexist, it is not a good pleasure since
prejudice and discrimination have no place in utilitarian because each individual
counts the same when measuring the pleasure provided by our acts.