ive and are merely good, and higher, which are active and engage a rational aspect of our nature. Lower pleasures are ones which engage our senses such as tasting a good steak or feeling a cool sea-breeze on a hot day at the beach. Higher pleasures engage our rational minds. The pleasure of creative writing, playing a musical instrument or singing in the shower. This is a qualitative distinction as opposed to one which is quantitative. No amount of lower pleasures equals any amount of higher pleasures. Additionally, Mill claims that higher pleasures are incomparable to lower pleasures, and that is something that anyone who has knowledge of both, and dignity in virtue of reason, will concede. He writes, "Human beings have faculties more elevated than the animal appetites, and when once made conscious of them, do not regard anything as happiness which does not include their gratification." (56) People who pursue higher pleasures are happier than those who only pursue lower pleasures. From here Mill extrapolates a distinction between contentment and happiness which must guide an investigation of which theory of well-being Mill's theory of morality adheres to. Persons who pursu only lower pleasures, live lives of contentment, while those who pursue higher pleasures attain true happiness. Therefore, happiness, as opposed to mere contentment, is achieved as product of a person's maximization of higher pleasures at the expense of lower pleasures. Mill believes that people choose lower pleasures because of a lack of knowledge about higher pleasures or a lack of ability to pursue higher pleasures. He envisions structures designed to allow all persons to cultivate higher pleasures. In summation, Mill points to well-being as an effect of a person's pursuit of higher pleasures. He believes that his society should be ideally made up of people pursuing these higher pleasures because they achieve something greater than what people pursuing lower, more...
