Justice Lecture 4: Higher vs. lower pleasures

This lecture really annoyed me. Sandel describes how Mill distinguishes between higher and lower pleasures. Mill’s argument as I understand it is that higher pleasures trump the lower pleasures in terms of the utilitarian calculus. So, for example, the pleasure that I derive from being able to eat a bowl of rice if I’m starving should trump whatever pleasure you derive from tossing that bowl of rice in the mud. It’s been too long since I’ve read Mill, so maybe I’m not accurately representing his position. But if I were drawing distinctions between the utility gained from different kinds of activities, that’s the sort of distinction I would want to draw: one that can be universally agreed upon. Having a shelter over your head, or food to eat, or medicine to make you healthy are all going to trump pleasure gained from entertainment.

However, Sandel polls the class about whether they prefer the Simpson’s or Shakespeare. To me, this is not a very important distinction in matters of ethics. There are reasons to prefer one or the other, but ultimately not all people are going to agree. But who cares? So what if someone prefers watching mass-produced cartoons than live theater? Lots of people would pay more to see a football game than the symphony, or spend more money on their monthly cable bill than they do buying books. We could have a long debate about promoting culture and education and reasoned thinking, but that debate doesn’t really change our moral code. Individuals get to choose what they enjoy doing, whether that’s watching a ballgame or a lecture.

However, we will draw the line when the pleasures of diversion come into conflict with basic human needs like sustenance, shelter, freedom, or health. Let’s not let the other debate about culture be confused with this distinction.

p.s. Are all values commensurable? If they are, we should be able to translate all values into dollar amounts. I think I'll come down with the economists on this one and say that we can assign dollar amounts to all values. We certainly have to make tradeoff decisions; how else can we make those decisions than by comparing different values.