ABSTRACT
John Stuart Mill was a utilitarian, born and bred; but when he came to write his defence of utilitarianism, there was one aspect of the doctrine that he could not accept. He could not stomach the suggestion that the pleasures of push-pin are equivalent to the pleasures of poetry. Indeed, he denied that such a suggestion had ever been made. He maintained that every utilitarian theorist had assigned ‘to the pleasures of the intellect, of the feelings and imagination, and of the moral sentiments a much higher value as pleasures than to those of mere sensation’ (Utilitarianism, II). He discussed in detail the difference between ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ pleasures, and he unashamedly declared the intrinsic superiority of the higher.
