Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/188

 "Seek the most pleasure possible," Mill would say, "Seek the best pleasure possible." Now the quality of pleasure can be judged only by those who have had the widest and wisest experience of it. Connoisseurs in pleasure will balance pleasures against one another, and "if one of the two is, by those who are competently acquainted with both, placed so far above the other that they prefer it, even though knowing it to be attended with a greater amount of discontent, and would not resign it for any amount of other pleasure which their nature is capable of, we are justified in ascribing to the preferred enjoyment a superiority in quality, so far outweighing it as to render it, in comparison, of small account."

Now, this distinction which Mill introduced puts a higher complexion on Hedonism. "Seek the best pleasure possible" is clearly a more elevating precept than "Seek the most pleasure possible." But the two main criticisms to which all Hedonism is open apply also to the lofty Utilitarianism of Mill. For there are two convictions which are common to all Hedonists, whether Utilitarians or not. These are (1) that pleasure is the only object of desire, and (2) that pleasure is the standard of moral action and moral judgment. Pleasure for Hedonism is both the moral end and the moral standard. These points are very important, and the Hedonist view must be examined with some care.

§4. Is Pleasure the Moral Standard? Utilitarianism maintains that pleasure is the only moral standard. If I want to know, in given circumstances, whether an act is right or not, I have only to ask myself, Does it (along with its consequences)