Final answer:
John Stuart Mill distinguished between higher and lower pleasures, while hedonism is based on the idea that pleasure and pain dictate what is good and bad. Utilitarianism is a moral theory that maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain.
Step-by-step explanation:
John Stuart Mill distinguished between higher and lower pleasures. Higher pleasures are associated with the exercise of higher faculties such as reason and imagination, while lower pleasures are basic sensory pleasures. Mill argued that it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied, as humans have access to higher pleasures.
Hedonism is a philosophical approach that bases moral theory on pleasure and pain. It considers pleasure as good and pain as bad. Epicurus, an ancient Greek philosopher, founded a school of philosophy called Epicureanism, which taught that a life of moderation, virtue, and philosophy leads to the most pleasurable life.
Utilitarianism is a moral theory that aims to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. Utilitarians evaluate actions based on the intensity, duration, certainty, and extent of pleasure or pain. John Stuart Mill recognized that there are qualitative differences in pleasure and assigned greater significance to higher-quality pleasures.