Hedonism

Epicurus Roughly speaking, hedonism is the philosophy of pleasure, the idea that only pleasure is good and only pain is evil or bad. More precisely, psychological hedonism is the theory that all human acts are motivated by pleasure or pain, and ethical hedonism is the theory that seeking pleasure is morally right and not doing so is morally wrong. Perhaps the purest form of hedonism is Cyrenaic hedonism, named after Aristippus of Cyrene. ristippus taught that sensory pleasure is better than other kinds because it is more intense. He also believed that the future is uncertain so we should all ma!imi"e our immediate sensory pleasure. #f subjectivism, the theory that all we can know is our own feelings, is true, then perhaps whatever feels right is all that can be right. $o if it feels good we should do it. #n this case ristippus might have been right. %therwise he seems very short&sighted and unrealistic in denying or downplaying our intellectual and moral feelings. More famous is Epicurus, who regarded philosophy as a kind of therapy, the goal of which is ataraxia, mental balance or peace of mind. 'o help his followers to achieve ataraxia, Epicurus taught an atomistic view of the universe in which the gods do not care what we do (otherwise they would be unhappy, which is absurd) and there is no afterlife (since we are purely material beings who simply decompose when we die). #t is irrational to fear death, he argued, because the dead feel no pain and the gods do not punish us after this life is over. *hat matters is the +uality of one,s life, not the +uantity. life of +uality is best ensured by taking pleasure in simple things that are easy to get hold of, and to avoid e!tremes of feeling or dependence on other people or things beyond one,s control. %b-ections to hedonism. /. How should society as a whole behave0 1. *hat if what gives one person pleasure causes another pain0 2. 'he 3parado! of hedonism3. if pleasure is believed to be the only good (and not ice cream, say) we will never e!perience pleasure, since pleasure comes from getting what we consider to

be good (such as ice cream and other such things). 4o one ever gets pleasure on its own. #t is a by&product, as ristotle said.