ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an introduction to higher and lower pleasures, followed by a thought experiment. It is followed by a short discussion and then a series of questions. The utilitarian Jeremy Bentham suggests that people can calculate which action is the right action to take by asking which brings about the greatest amount of pleasure. If action x gives three people pleasure, but action y gives ten people pleasure then action y is the morally right action. This is explained with the thought experiment with a case of two friends spending time in a desert island. The questions are intended to get the philosophy students thinking about the problems. They have used these kinds of questions in seminars as the questions set for seminars, so they also think that they can be used to spark conversation and discussion. The chapter also gives a cursory sketch of some of the ways in which philosophers have responded to the thought experiment.
