%0 Journal Article
%T What are Millian Qualitative Superiorities?
%A Jonathan Riley
%J Prolegomena
%D 2008
%I Society for the Advancement of Philosophy, Zagreb
%X In an article published in Prolegomena 2006, Christoph Schmidt-Petri has defended his interpretation and attacked mine of Mill¡¯s idea that higher kinds of pleasure are superior in quality to lower kinds, regardless of quantity. Millian qualitative superiorities as I understand them are infinite superiorities. In this paper, I clarify my interpretation and show how Schmidt-Petri has misrepresented it and ignored the obvious textual support for it. As a result, he fails to understand how genuine Millian qualitative superiorities determine the novel structure of Mill¡¯s pluralistic utilitarianism, in which a social code of justice that distributes equal rights and duties takes absolute priority over competing considerations. Schmidt-Petri¡¯s own interpretation is a non-starter, because it does noteven recognize that Mill is talking about different kinds of pleasant feelings, such that the higher kinds are intrinsically more valuable than the lower. I conclude by outlining why my interpretation is free of any metaphysical commitment to the ¡°essence¡± of pleasure.
%K Essence
%K hedonism
%K higher and lower pleasure
%K infinite superiority
%K justice
%K lexical hierarchy
%K Mill
%K security
%K utilitarianism.
%U http://hrcak.srce.hr./index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=33739&lang=en