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Literary Devices
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Chapter 2: What Utilitarianism Is
Explanation and Analysis—Epicurus and Bentham:
In “Utilitarianism,” Mill seeks to clarify the principles of utilitarianism and to rebut what he considers to be popular misconceptions about utilitarian ideas. In addressing critics of utilitarianism who characterize it as a joyless or merely instrumental school of philosophy, he makes allusions to previous philosophers whom he regards as his own philosophical forefathers:
Those who know anything about the matter are aware that every writer, from Epicurus to Bentham, who maintained the theory of utility meant by it, not something to be contradistinguished from pleasure, but pleasure itself, together with exemption from pain; and instead of opposing the useful to the agreeable or the ornamental, have always declared that the useful means these, among other things.
Related Themes:
Chapter 5: On the Connection between Justice and Utility
Explanation and Analysis—Eye for an Eye :
In his sustained critique of popular notions of justice, Mill uses the common idiom “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Identifying the desire for vengeance as “primitive,” Mill writes that:
Unlock with LitCharts A+No rule on the subject recommends itself so strongly to the primitive and spontaneous sentiment of justice as the lex talionis, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Though this principle of the Jewish and of the Mohammedan law has been generally abandoned in Europe as a practical maxim, there is, I suspect, in most minds, a secret hankering after it; and when retribution accidentally falls on an offender in that precise shape, the general feeling of satisfaction evinced bears witness how natural is the sentiment to which this repayment in kind is acceptable.
Related Themes:
