Blog 3

In reading these first two chapters, I thought a lot about the objection to the Greatest Happiness Principle that said that, "happiness, in any form, cannot be the rational purpose of human life and action; because, in the first place, it is unattainable." I found that to be quite a disturbing thought and wondered whether the objector meant that a "happy" life in general was unattainable, or that continuous happiness was unattainable (which Mill discusses), or that total happiness with no sadness or suffrage was unattainable. I do agree with Mill's explanation that if it is meant that continuous highly pleasurable excitement is meant, then it is pretty obvious that it is impossible to keep that pleasure or happiness going on forever. It is possible, however, that pleasurable experiences and excitements can happen with breaks in between them continuously. I would go on to add that this is possible because there is such a wide variety of experiences, both large and small, that people find pleasurable and make them happy. Experiences as small as someone holding the door open for someone who is handicapped to experiences as large as someone getting married to the love of their life can both be pleasurable experiences to a person. Obviously there is a difference in the quality of happiness felt between the two experiences, but those small pleasurable experiences tend to happen in a higher quantity than the big ones, and while they may not be a huge factor in the total happiness of one's entire life, they can give a person boost of pleasure for doing something morally good which may boost not only that person's current mood, but also the current mood of the person that was on the receiving end of the act of kindness. If a person is able to build the quantity of those small pleasurable experiences, then they can achieve those boosts of happiness more often and affect the "short-term" happiness of a wider and wider range of people. Pairing that quantity of small pleasurable experiences with the fewer often but much higher quality experiences of pleasure that can alter the overall happiness level of one's entire life, then I would find it pretty difficult to think that happiness is unattainable.