Hedonism
Hi Philosophers,
We hope you're hanging in there.
This week’s topic is Hedonism, a concept defined by pleasure and pain. Generally speaking, philosophical hedonists assign importance to pleasure and pain in the realm of some specific field of consideration.
Philosophers associated with hedonism often argue for significantly different versions or applications of it:
- Epicurus made distinctions between different kinds of pleasure and emphasized the importance and superiority of “simple” pleasures over more extravagant ones, since relying on simple and achievable pleasure limits the chance that you will experience pain.
- To Jeremy Bentham, all pleasures are of equal value, and only differ in duration and intensity.
- Bentham’s theory didn’t work for fellow philosopher John Stuart Mill, who insisted that humans indulge in higher pleasures than other animals, and therefore a distinction must be made between different types of pleasure.
- Philosopher Derek Parfit spoke of preference hedonism, which simply states that we seek any mental state that is desirable, whether pleasurable or painful.
So, when discussing Hedonism, even just in the philosophical sense, it's pretty clear that you have to be specific about what you're really referring to. Are talking about Value Hedonism, the assumption that moral value is derived from pleasure and pain? Are you talking about Motivational Hedonism, the theory that everyone's behavior is guided by pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain? Or any other version? And, moreover, how are you defining pleasure and pain?
Questions to consider:
- Are we motivated by anything that does not stem from pleasure or pain? If so, what?-
- Is there a distinction between different types of pleasure? If so, how do you distinguish between them? Further, is one type better than all the rest?
- Is "folk hedonism" (the pursuit of selfish short-term pleasure) justified under any philosophical definitions of hedonism?
Don't give up hope,
Elle & Jade
Resources:
Videos:
Brief introduction to the concept of hedonism (under 2 minutes):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBKrTh1Jb98
6 minute journey through various philosophers’ interpretations of hedonism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZmFDVYolQ4
Short (5ish minutes), interpretation of Epicurus’ hedonism of “simple pleasures”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukORp-VwfdU&t=156s
Articles:
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy definition of hedonism:
https://iep.utm.edu/hedonism/
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy definition of hedonism:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hedonism/
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