I decided to write my paper on Mill for two main reasons. The first deals with happiness and virtue and his take on these things. I would first off like to state my disagreements with his ideas and then I will speak of my agreements.
Mill contends that a less intelligent individual can not be as happy as one with a greater intellectual capacity. He also states that you would not be happy as swine even if everything you desired was given. I disagree. I feel that if you do not know of what you do not have then you cannot miss it. If we were less intelligent then we would be more content with the more primal needs that our ancestors had. If their needs were met then they were happy. Can we say the same for ourselves? Even if I had everything I ever wanted I could not be as happy as a caveman who had a mate, good hunting grounds and a full stomach. They had no one to worry about except protecting their clan. Yet we as a more civilized culture have much more to concern ourselves with. We must not only worry about ourselves and our families but also our neighbors and communities. If a caveman was considered virtuous it was because he was a good protector and provider and could be relied upon by his clan, yet for a man to now be considered virtuous it takes almost the same but this goal is much harder to achieve.
I do feel like Mill that to live virtuously is a goal that we should all strive to attain and like him I believe ...