i don't know bentham as well as i should. It's certainly true that the way bentham is typically interpreted, you know, es, this is a john stuart mill paraphrase of bentham. But he's, the slogan is, pushpins, pleasure for pleasure, pushpin is as good as poetry. And so i think bentham did seem to have a very, a simplistic, single currency view. Thereis some amount of posamthat wold d exactly, exactlyik, how good was the poem? It means how many hours of pushpin would it take? It is certain,You know, that exactly this.
John Stuart Mill's midlife crisis came at 20 when he realized that if he got what he desired he still wouldn't be happy. Art and poetry (and maybe love) saved the day for him. In this week's episode, philosopher Kieran Setiya of MIT talks about his book Midlife with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Setiya argues we can learn from Mill to help deal with the ennui to which so many midlifers succumb--along with regrets for roads not taken and wistfulness for what could have been. Setiya argues that a well-lived life needs fewer projects and more pursuits that don't have goals or endpoints. He explains why past mistakes can turn out to be good things and how lost chances can help us appreciate the richness of life.