CHAPTER 6 ➔ “Anything is good which produces pleasure,
Pleasure and that is best, which produces the most
● Philosophy, as organized human wisdom,
is supposed to show a man how to avoid
falling into any such unhappy state and to
give positive help.
● In search of something that might make life
satisfactory, the most obvious candidate is
pleasure.
● There is truly a place for pleasure in the
good life.
● Many think that pleasure is the only element
in the good life, and this view expressed
philosophically is called hedonism.
Introduction to Hedonism
➔ assumes two (2) chief forms, according to
whose pleasure is sought
◆ Egoistic hedonism - concentrates
on the personal pleasure of the
individual
◆ Altruistic hedonism - seeks the
pleasure of others; if it embraces
that of the whole human race, it is
often called universalistic
hedonism.
Note: We shall reserve the word hedonism for the
egoistic variety and call altruistic and universalistic
variety, utilitarianism.
Hedonism
➔ first proposed by Aristippus, leader of
Cyrenaic school, who identified happiness
with pleasure
➔ Aristippus: held that pleasure results from
gentle motion, and pain from rough motion
vivid and intense pleasure.”
➔ Virtue is useful as restraining us from
excessive passion, which is rough motion
and unpleasant.
➔ later refined by Epicurus, who joined it to
the physical theories of Democritus
➔ Epicurus: the end of life is not intense
pleasure, but an abiding peace of mind, a
state of cheerful tranquility
➔ “Intellectual pleasures are better because
they are more lasting, but we cannot do
without sense pleasures.”
➔ Thomas Hobbes: subscribe to a hedonistic
view with a strong strain of egoism
➔ He thinks that nothing is by itself good or
evil, but that those are names we give to
what we desire or detest.
◆ Desire - what will give us pleasure,
wither of body and mind
◆ Detest - what gives us displeasure
➔ Not thinking of tranquility landed by
Epicureans to be possible in this struggling
world, but thought that the formation of the
political state is our only means of
controlling the struggle and making life
bearable
➔ Society is formed for peace and safety of
each particular person
➔ Jeremy Bentham: did not limit his
hedonism to egoistic type and is commonly
regarded as the founder of utilitarianism
➔ His statement of the hedonistic principle is
classic
 ◆ Nature has placed mankind under
the governance of two (2) sovereign
masters: pain and pleasure.
◆ It is with these two to point out what
we ought to do, as to determine
what we shall do.
◆ On one hand, the standard of right
and wrong; the other, the chain of
causes and effects
◆ Principle of Utility - recognizes the
subjection, and assumes it for the
foundation of that system, the object
of which is to rear the fabric of
felicity by the hands of reason and
law
➔