PLEASURE IN ARISTOTLE AND MILL:
SIMILARITIES BETWEEN VIRTUE ETHICS AND UTILITARIANISM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7443/problemata.v12i1.57355Keywords:
Aristotle, Mill, PleasureAbstract
This article presents a comparative analysis between virtue ethics and utilitarianism pleasure theories with emphasis on Aristotle and Mill. Initially, interpretative controversies suggested by the two pleasure theories presented by Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics is investigated: i) pleasure as activity and ii) pleasure as something that accompanies and completes an activity. Thereafter, the notion of pleasure in Mill is analysed to point outsimilarities and differences between a virtue and a utilitarian theory. We conclude that these theories seem to present more similarities than differences since, for both of them: i) pleasure cannot be pursued apart from activities; ii) there is an hierarchy of pleasures based not only on the ammount of pleasure perceived but on the quality of pleasure as well; iii) the type of pleasure considered superior is the same, as well as the type of pleasure considered inferior and iv) there are people who can be taken as golden standards, capable of rightlycategorizing pleasures in the aforementioned hierarchy.
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Copyright (c) 2021 Jaqueline Stefani, Wallace da Silva Carvalho
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