Multiple Flavors of Hedonism

1312 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Arguments about psychological and ethical hedonism

Hedonism Two Ways

The basic tenet of hedonism states that pleasure or happiness is the highest good and ought to be what people strive for as an ultimate end. That being said, there are multiple flavors of hedonism with varying qualities, principles, definitions, and consequences. Ethical hedonism and psychological hedonism tend to garner the most attention. These two theories are similar at their foundations—later to be discussed—but when defined one is descriptive and the other normative in the nature of their values. Neither ethical nor psychological hedonism is perfect, I believe, though each has important strengths which offer the basis for discussion. Additionally, some arguments and ideas presented by Robert Nozick in his essay “The Experience Machine” prove relevant to the discussion of hedonism. One question in particular that Nozick poses proves fundamentally vital to the discussion of hedonism in ethics: other than our internal feelings, what else can or should matter to anyone? In the end, ethical and psychological hedonism will prove to be insufficient for living the good life, in my opinion, because of their extreme or unrealistic nature, and a middle amalgamation will emerge as the best policy.

The terminology in question must be defined in order to be properly critiqued. Ethical hedonism is the belief that humans ought to be able to pursue the utmost pleasure (happiness) as the highest good. More than that, ethical hedonism states that to do it, a person is within their right to make their own personal happiness the priority. That means that each individual human ought to put his self-interest ahead of everyone else’s. There are multiple ways to extrapolate this definition. G. E. Moore asserts that the egoist “...

... middle of paper ...

...anism might be applicable: “Of two pleasures, if there be one to which all or almost all who have experience of both give a decided preference, irrespective of any feeling of moral obligation to prefer it, that is the more desirable pleasure” (Mill 331). Uneducated people who do not have the “experience of both” aforementioned—whatever that is—may use the experience machine because they know no other way to extract pleasure from life. I do not think I can agree that “no one” would plug into the machine; it could make a great number of lives better. To the argument that people do not know what they have not seen (that someone who has never seen a luxury car cannot own one in the machine), Nozick helps my case by saying that “if you are worried about missing out on desirable experiences[…you] can pick and choose from their large library[…] of such experiences” (42).

Show More
Related

  • Robert Nozick's The Experience Machine

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    As humans we are constantly in search of understanding the balance between what feels good and what is right. Humans try to take full advantage of experiencing pleasure to its fullest potential. Hedonism claims that pleasure is the highest and only source of essential significance. If the notion of hedonism is truthful, happiness is directly correlated with pleasure. Robert Nozick presented the philosophical world with his though experiment, “The Experience Machine” in order to dispute the existence and validity of hedonism. Nozick’s thought experiment poses the question of whether or not humans would plug into a machine which produces any desired experience. Nozick weakens the notion of hedonism through his thought experiment, claiming humans need more than just pleasure in their lives. Nozick discovers that humans would not hook up to this machine because they would not fully develop as a person and consider it a form of suicide.

    Read More

  • Objective List Theory Essay

    911 Words  | 2 Pages

    From this one could say it is actually difficult to determine if one’s life is good or better than another’s life. As you look at the theory of Quantitative Hedonism, the presence of pleasure and absence of pain are the only aspects that can determine an intrinsically good life. To further explain this idea, I will use the example of the deceived business man. A businessman believed that his life was good and he experienced plenty of pleasure in his life to make his life good, so since that’s what he thought, it was true to him. However, behind the aspects of just how he felt about himself and his life, in actuality his wife was cheating on him and someone was stealing from him. Therefore, making it evident that his life was not good. Nonetheless, after you look at it from the Objective List Theory, the view on the man’s life and situation alters. From an outer look of this theory, the average observer would say that he really hasn’t achieved anything in his life. He is letting other people run his life because of the way he views his values and well - being, therefore, resulting in him being cheated on and deceived by the people around him and consequently takes away his freedom and knowledge of his own life. He becomes unaware of the circumstances he is in as well as the people he is associated himself with and

    Read More

  • Epicurus Death Argument Analysis

    1169 Words  | 3 Pages

    Epicurus was admittedly a Hedonist, and this philosophy has had a huge influence on his work. Especially so on his death argument. Hedonism is, “the doctrine that pleasure is the only thing that is good in itself for a person, pain the only thing that is bad in itself for a person.”

    Read More

  • Response to Kraut’s Desire and the Human Good

    607 Words  | 2 Pages

    In order to reach a better theory to address what makes a life go best we must admit that there are things which are worthy of being desired due to some intrinsic properties they have, as opposed to assuming all things which are good for an agent are good only because they are desired by the agent; this notion however, is too far a departure from the idea of Desire Satisfaction Theory, and requires an alternative ethical theory to account for it.

    Read More

  • Marx And Mills

    1189 Words  | 3 Pages

    John Stuart Mill suggests that a person’s ethical decision-making process should be based solely upon the amount of happiness that the person can receive. Although Mill fully justifies himself, his approach lacks certain criteria for which happiness can be considered. Happiness should be judged, not only by pleasure, but by pain as well. This paper will examine Mill’s position on happiness, and the reasoning behind it. Showing where there are agreements and where there are disagreements will critique the theory of Utilitarianism. By showing the problems that the theory have will reveal what should make up ethical decision-making. John Stuart Mill supports and explains his reasoning in his book, Utilitarianism. Mill illustrates the guidelines of his theory. Mill defines utilitarianism as the quest for happiness. His main point is that one should guide his or her judgements by what will give pleasure. Mill believes that a person should always seek to gain pleasure and reject pain. Utilitarianism also states that the actions of a person should be based upon the “greatest happiness principle”. This principle states that ethical actions command the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. Mill further explores the need for pleasure by noting “a being of higher faculties requires more to make him happy.” . He acknowledges that some pleasures are more alluring than others are. He adds to this by making known that when placing value in things to calculate pleasure, not only quantity important but quality as well. Mill’s criteria for happiness is easily understood, some statements that he gives are questionable. John Stuart Mill plainly laid out what he believes that the basis for ethical decision-making. First, the pursuit of pleasure is directly related to happiness. This idea can be easily accepted. It is natural for a person to focus his goals on things that will bring him pleasure. It would be absurd if someone’s goal in life was to be poor and starving. This being said, it does not mean that people are only happy due wealth but that no one’s goals are focused on poverty. Although there are many issues that can be agreeable with Mill, there are problems that exist with his theory of utilitarianism.

    Read More

  • Egoism

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    Again, it is identified with hedonism or eudaimonism, or epicureanism, philosophies that teach that the attainment of pleasure or

    Read More

  • Understanding the Complex Nature of Addiction

    1008 Words  | 3 Pages

    The pain in which people are avoiding can be psychological/ emotional, or physical. Hedonism can be acknowledged in two ways; the way the constitution stresses it is the ‘pursuit of happiness’, but some people do not use this as a way to better themselves. It is meant to be used as a means to better one’s self and strive for excellence. Whereas people use this as a reason to use substances to alleviate pain and discomfort stemming from a physical sensation, or from

    Read More

  • Preferentism And Self Sacrifice

    955 Words  | 2 Pages

    In moral philosophy, preferentism - or desire satisfactionism - is the idea that the fulfilment of preferences is the sole basic bearer of intrinsic goodness, and the frustration of preferences is the sole basic bearer of intrinsic badness. Simply, getting what you desire most is good, not getting that is bad. The source of value is not the pleasure gained by getting what you want; rather the fulfilment of the desire as an end in itself. This view came about as an alternative to traditional hedonism, especially after Nozick's Experience Machine showed that most people would not choose not to be most efficiently pleasured through the machine, and therefore we should look to things other than pleasure as sources of value.

    Read More

  • Ethical Egoism Essay

    1157 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ethical egoism is the normative view that each individual should seek out their own self-interest (Robbins). One ought to act and do what is in one’s own maximum interest, benefit, or advantage; and, the action must be moralistic for it to produce happiness. According to this theory morality is based on everyone promoting their self-interest or selfish motives. In the article “Ethical Egoism” by Jan Narveson. Narveson quotes Bishop Joseph Butler’s theory of rational behavior as “the rational agent acts so as to maximize the realization of one’s interest.” Meaning that one will only act if they are carrying out an action with the intention to achieve their interest to its full extent.

    Read More

  • Utilitarianism In John Mill: A Form Of Hedonism

    1154 Words  | 3 Pages

    MIll presents a form of hedonism that is quite contrary to its usual connotation. His "utilitarianism" is a principle stating that every person desires more happiness than pain and that actions are moral if they are condusive to this desire. Utilitarianism is empircally based, or centered around observation. Rather than seeking pleasure in any form, Mill contends that some pleasures are greater than others. He believes that, as humans, we are capable of intellectual pleasures rather than simple animal pleasures, and that these intellectual pleasure provide much more quality, which is far superior to quanity. Thus need a way to discern between which is more worthwhile. According to Mill, the only reasonable way to do this is to look at the

    Read More

  • The Hedonic Dysregulation Theory

    449 Words  | 1 Pages

    For this assignment, I decided to choose the Hedonic Dysregulation Theory to explain the five-minute clip we watched. This theory explains that after experiencing the first sensation of the drug, you continue to seek for the drug later on. Also with the introducing of anxiety or even dysphoria coming to your mind you are still going to seek out the drug even though the effects are slowly or have been taking a toll on you. I do agree with what has been said about how the music, colors, even animation of this kiwi mimics the downward spiral of the drug on the body. Especially the effects it was having on the kiwi’s body from not being able to fly when it was enjoying the effects of the nugget that it first ate!

    Read More

  • Hedonism and The Great Gatsby

    613 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hedonism means to live only for pleasure. It means not thinking about the consequences of your actions as long as make you happy. It’s a total abandon of all responsibilities. This type of lifestyle often has negative results. I mean, look at the hippies, and how their hedonistic society turned out. They are all either in rehab centers or have kids running around with names like “Moonbeam” and “Starchild”. But enough hippie bashing - let’s look at how the Hedonistic way of life is integrated into The Great Gatsby. Let’s take the parties for example. Gatsby has a party just about every week, no matter what. He has tons of people come over, and they party all night. Gatsby has tons of booze at his parties, and no one thinks of consuming anything but alcohol.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Value Hedonism

    1500 Words  | 3 Pages

    Value Hedonism as stated from the text for this semester is “ only states of pleasure have positive intrinsic value and only states of pain have intrinsic negative value; anything else of value is of mere extrinsic value” (Timmons, 2016). Intrinsic value is when a value is for its own sake and for the value of or the sake of something or someone else. Value Hedonism converts the things that us as humans value and turns that into pleasure. An extrinsic value only occurs when the subject is affected by an intrinsic value. We as humans sometimes let our desires for pleasure make our decisions good or bad. A prime example of something that is intrinsically valuable that we are humans use to pleasure them is Food. We eat food in order to survive,

    Read More

  • Me and My Life by Shelly Kagan

    1066 Words  | 3 Pages

    Though plugging into the Experience Machine may not bestow a good life for an individual, it does not decrease their welfare because the deception cannot be considered to have an intrinsic effect and that is the sole thing welfare must be altered by. Hence, genuine connections to reality that are lacking in the Experience Machine are not intrinsic desires affecting an individual’s welfare and objections to Experientialism have been effectively addressed and rebuked.

    Read More

  • Reflections on Hedonism

    616 Words  | 2 Pages

    When talking about pleasure there needs to be a distinction between the quality and the quantity. While having many different kinds of pleasures can be considered a good thing, one is more likely to favor quality over quantity. With this distinction in mind, one is more able to quantify their pleasures as higher or lesser pleasures by ascertaining the quality of them. This facilitates the ability to achieve the fundamental moral value that is happiness. In his book Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill offers a defining of utility as pleasure or the absence of pain in addition to the Utility Principle, where “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (Mill 7). Through this principle, Mill emphasizes that it is not enough to show that happiness is an end in itself. Mill’s hedonistic view is one in support of the claim that every human action is motivated by or ought to be motivated by the pursuit of pleasure.

    Read More

More about Multiple Flavors of Hedonism

Open Document