Maximize Good Minimize Bad

In John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism, his main argument is for "the Greatest Happiness Principle" which states that actions are considered to be "right" if they promote happiness, and "wrong" if they promote pain, sadness, suffering, etc. (10). Although most would agree with Mill that a happy life is the best life to live, and we ought to be living our lives in such a way that makes us happy, I was slightly turned off by this. I do enjoy being happy and doing the "right" thing, thus making me happy, but I feel as if happiness would not be possible if one did not first know pain. Although I am not attempting to claim that Mill believes that one should never feel or know pain, I would just like to point out that pain is sometimes necessary in one's life to truly appreciate eventual happiness. 

Mill does go on to explain though, that pain or pleasure are difficult terms to define (10), therefore determining which actions are right or wrong, or which actions would cause pleasure versus the actions that would cause pain, are difficult to decipher. I feel that this holds true in many situations because it seems that we often find ourselves contemplating whether or not we should do something simply because we are unsure of whether or not this action will truly make us happy, or if we will find ourselves later regretting this action. For example, even an action as simple as whether to go out to dinner or not becomes a conflict. Going to dinner could be considered the “right” thing to do because it could make us happy in the sense that we will have eaten food, increasing our health as well as our overall mood (some people get quite touchy when they are hungry); on the other hand, going to dinner could be considered the “wrong” thing to do because it could make us sad that we spent money on ourselves instead of on starving children in third world countries. It is moral contradictions such as these that Mill believes occur regularly and need deeper reflection upon, which I completely agree with.