On an Interpretation of Mill’s Qualitative Utilitarianism

Abstract

This paper is a reply to Jonathan Riley’s criticism of my reading of Mill(both published in the Philosophical Quarterly 2003). I show that Riley’s interpretation has no textual support in Mill’s writing by putting the supposedly supporting quotations in their proper context. Secondly it is demonstrated how my reading is not incompatible with hedonism. Mill’s use of the concepts of ‘quality’, ‘quantity’, and ‘pleasure’ are explained and illustrated. I conclude by considering whether the possible redundancy of Mill’s quality/quantity discussion would be problematic.

Keywords

• Mill
• utilitarianism
• quantity
• quality
• qualitative utilitarianism
• incommensurability
• pleasure
• hedonism
• higher and lower pleasures