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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
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    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Mill himself distinguishes higher from lower pleasures by the quality of the activity producing them, implicitly grounding value in the nature of the activity itself.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Mill ultimately defines value through pleasure experience, not activity itself; he values reading because it produces superior pleasure, not vice versa.
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    • 2.Grounding value in activity nature invites the question: what makes activities valuable? This risks abandoning hedonism for a competing value theory.
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    • 3.Mill could maintain his distinctions by arguing higher pleasures are simply more intense or durable—no need to ground value in activity nature itself.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Mill explicitly states competent judges prefer intellectual pleasures, showing he values the activity's inherent quality, not just intensity.
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    • 2.If value derived solely from pleasure quantity, there'd be no rational basis for Mill's claim that poetry beats pushpin—activity quality must matter.
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    • 3.Mill's distinction requires something beyond subjective feeling; grounding value in activity nature explains why some pursuits are objectively superior.
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