One Question to Mill!

If Mill was alive and i was able to ask him him one question, the question i would ask would most probably ask is why he made such an semi-easy concept theory into a overcomplicated, un interesting, and not well structured writing. The writing is extremely difficult to read and comprehend, if you want to explain such a detailed subject and get your message across, i think his work should have been more in “lamans” term. so the average can comprehend the message you are sending across. Mill has it made it so difficult to read, that instead of reading a passage the class is practically deciphering it word for word. plus i would also expect a writer to be well organized and not jump from one example to another with out fully defining his first example.

Self-Sacrfice Noble?

Group 3 presented Mills passage stating if Self Sacrifice is valuable. According to me i think self sacrifice is morally the best act a person can do. If one sacrifices his/her own pleasures for the happiness of others it can be considered a very noble thing. An example of self sacrifice, occured in my hometown that was regarded as a very noble act amongst alot of people in our community. A couple of my friends and I were at Long Beach, enjoying a beautiful summer day. Someone amongst the group decided to throw around the football along the beach just for fun. A long pass from my friend Fahad to his Cousin Osama, led Osama to go in deeper in the ocean, when he was caught in a riptide. He started screaming and waving towards us who were not in the water. Fahad his cousin immediately thought something was wrong and headed in to save his drowning cousin. But unfortunately he also got caught in the riptide. Both of them had drowned right infront of us. but the courageous act of Fahad will never be forgotten. He actually sacrificed himself to save his cousin but unfortunately none of them prevailed. Fahads’ body was recovered a couple of hours later and his cousin Osama’s body was recovered 4 days later along the beach. Self Sacrifice is a very noble thing to do. If Fahad had prevailed in saving the his cousin he would have been considered a Hero. But unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Another example of Self Sacrifice would be giving charity, if a person gives charity, he is giving up his happiness to increase the happiness of other less fortunate people. Mills also shows the people can live without happiness, but if they live without happiness it would be a factor that they would be bringing overall happiness to everyone else besides themselves. And that is the reason why people can live without happiness according to Mills.

Can it make any more sense?

In class we were divided into groups and given a passage of Mills’ to Analyze. The objection of our passage was. if Happiness was attainable? The objector of our passage claims that Happiness is not a rational purpose in life because, it is never attainable. But Mills’ on the otherhand says that Happiness is basically measured on a scale. The bottom of the scale being more pain, and the higher you go up the scale it’s more pleasure/happiness. Mills says people conduct their actions to stay farther up the scale to more happiness. He also goes on about saying that it happiness comes in burst or spurts lasting from hours to several days. But it’s usually never steady. People are usually never constant on the scale, people fluctuate from going to Pain/Unhappiness to Pleasure/Happiness. People competetively try to get as far up the scale more often, to acheive maximum happiness from the situation they’re given or are in.

Are “higher” pleasure really better then “lower” pleasure?

Higher pleasures are most definitly better then lower pleasures, if one is talking in the sense of being more happy then being less happy. If all of you actions are done to simply be more happier then i think the person would be a little self centered. Because all the actions that person does, would be in the interest of his own self happiness. But if a person for example gave away some of his “happiness” to another person, even though the result of that action would be he would be less happy, but the person on the receiveing end would be even more happier. In a blatant way higher pleasure is definitly better then lower pleasure, but i think the question of how you acheive that happiness, is much more important then the higher and lower pleasures. One person may cheat and steal to achieve all the happiness in the world but i don’t think that happiness would last longer then a person who was honest and hardworking to achieve lower pleasure. So in my opinion the fact of the matter is how you achieve your happiness, rather how happy you get! Then comes the issue of Quantity over Quality. Would you be happier with the quantity of low end, high maintanence, low reliable cars, or would you be more happier with one car that is high end, low maintaninece, and extremely reliable car? so one person must think of that also. But everyone is different, some people see the glass as half empty while on the other hand it’s half full for the rest.

Can God Change His Mind?

I Don’t think God can change his mind about moral issues or matter affect any issues. I think god is all knowing and absolutely perfect so the fact for him to change his mind does not make sense. If god is all knowing and perfect then he would set all the right moral standards from the beginning, in which case i think he has. I think god already has set moral standards for all people to follow, but humans on the other hand have the option the set the moral standards higher or lower as they please.

Blog Entry #1 – Moral Disagreement Between Cultures.

The Example i am going to use for my blog may be a little outrageous but i think in my opinion it is a pretty good one, with a valid argument/disagreement. In Somalia, a country on the horn of the african continent. There is a certain culture their that has brought up their females from a young age to have their genitals mutilated. Also known as FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) they perform this act i guess for a religious reason but mainly because so the female does not feel pleasure while having sex.

But on the other hand in many other society this would be considered outrageous and totally unethical. By our Western Standards a person from that culture would be look down upon and considered deranged to having their female genitals mutilated, and practicing it on the female children.

But is this example culturally right or wrong? In my opinion i don’t think it’s wrong, and i don’t think it’s right either. i think it’s up to the individual persons belief. If that female has grown up in that culture thinking that it is the right thing to do, then to her it is the right thing to do. It’s like having a circumcision for a male. Some cultures might believe it’s the right thing to do, But others would oppose it. In conclusion to this example i would say there is no right or wrong answer, rather i would ask that culture if they think they are doing the right thing or wrong thing.

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