Chapter 6: Pleasure

 Philosophy is supposed to show a man how to avoid falling into any such
unhappy state and to give him positive help toward making his life as
satisfactory as can be
 Pleasure is the most obvious candidate that might make life satisfactory
 Hedonism (Greek word for Pleasure) is a view that pleasure is the only element
in the good life
Hedonism
 Egoistic Hedonism - concentrates on the pleasure of the individual
Utilitarianism
 Altruistic Hedonism - seeks the pleasure of others
 Universalistic Hedonism - concentrates on the pleasure of the whole human race

Hedonism
People who have never consciously formulated for themselves any philosophy of life
live according to Hedonism principles.
Aristippus
 Identified happiness with pleasure
 Pleasure results from gentle motion, and pain from rough motion
 Anything that produces pleasure is good and if it produces the most vivid and
intense pleasure it is best
 Virtue is useful as restraining us from excessive passion
 Excessive Passion is rough and unpleasant
Epicurus
 Refined hedonism and and joined it to the physical theories of Democritus
 Hedonism is the ethics most consistent with mechanistic materialism
 The end of life is not intense pleasure, but an abiding peace of mind, a state of
cheerful tranquility
 Avoid fear of gods and death
 Intellectual pleasure are better because they are more lasting, but we cannot do
without sense pleasures
 Wise man regulates his life to achieve the greatest amount of pleasure and the
least amount of pain
 Moderation is counseled to enable one to enjoy future pleasures
 We must learn to restrict our our desires within the bounds in which we think
we can satisfy them
 The good will increase our pleasure or our general peace of mind, and anything
which decreases it is bad
 Pleasure is the beginning and the end of the blessed life
 We do not choose every pleasure; not every pleasure is to be chosen
 Pain is also an evil, yet not all are always of a nature to be avoided
 Pleasure is freedom from pain in the body and from trouble in the mind
Thomas Hobbes
 He thinks that nothing by itself is good or evil, but that these are names we give
to what we desire or detest
 We desire what will give us pleasure (body/mind) and we detest what gives is
displeasure
 The formation of the political state is our only means of controlling the struggle
and making life bearable
 Society is formed not for the benefit of other people or of mankind as such, but
for the peace and safety of each particular person looking out primarily for
himself
Jeremy Bentham
 Commonly regarded as founder of utilitarianism
 Two sovereign masters governing mankind = Pain & Pleasure
 Principle of utility recognizes subjection to pain and pleasure, and assumes it for
the foundation of that system.
Robert Olson
 Rational self-interest is the supreme moral criterion and health, friendship,
contentment, and pleasure are the chief goods
Ayn Rand
 The ultimate value is man’s survival
Hedonistic view
 Pleasure is evident
 Some think that we cannot act except for pleasure, or for the avoidance
of pain, which is a kind of negative pleasure.
 Self-sacrifice = foregoing sensual pleasure
 Even love has its self-regarding aspect and is unfulfilled unless it is returned
 Those who seek a reward in life are likewise motivated by hedonism.
 It is this expectation of future happiness that motivates them to endure
their present sufferings.
Non-hedonistic view
 Sense of fulfillment is not equal to pleasure
 Duty and virtue can be motivations
Wisdom dictates that I should pick less painful enjoyments
 The good of society does not redound to this individual
 He makes himself, the one to be rewarded, the last end and the highest good
Utilitarianism
The extension of hedonism beyond the individual to the pleasure of all mankind, is
called utilitarianism.
Jeremy Bentham
 Pleasure and pain are the only motives governing mankind
 Personal pleasure and pain are dependent on the general happiness
and prosperity of the whole community
 The moral goodness of an act is to be judged by its utility in promoting the
common welfare of all as well as the personal advantage of each
 The aim of human life is expressed in the Greatest Happiness Principle:
“The greatest happiness of the greatest number.”
John Stuart Mill
 Utilitarianism has reached its full development
 Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as
they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.
 Pleasures differ in quality as well as in quantity
There are higher and lower pleasures
Lesser amount of higher pleasure is better than a greater amount of a
lower pleasure
 It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be a
Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied
 “Desirable” does not mean able to be desired but worthy of being desired
 Virtue is one of the elements that make up happiness
Henry Sidgwick
 United intuitionism with utilitarianism
 No practical incompatibility between utilitarianism and intuitionism, though he
could find no positive theory to explain their union
G. E. Moore
 Combines utilitarianism and intuitionism in a different way
 Ideal utilitarianism - All actions are to be judged by their consequences
 Act utilitarianism - asks which act has the greatest utility
 Rule utilitarianism - observe rules with no exception
Utilitarianism (Useful consequences)
 Utilitarianism seeks a happiness in which all will be happy rather than only the
fortunate few.
 Utilitarianism recognizes that man is social
 Utilitarianism gives each person the right to seek his own pleasure
 In any system of ethics one must consider the consequences of one’s actions,
and social consequences are most important
Utilitarianism (Criticisms)
 Virtue is recommended, not because it is virtue, but only because it has useful
consequences
The Place of Pleasure in the Good Life
 The attempt to make pleasure (individual or group) the main purpose of life and
the standard of morality = failure
 The proper attitude must be somewhere between the extremes of hedonism
 There is no sense in trying to define pleasure. We know what it is by
experiencing it
Hedonistic Paradox - the fact that intense mental concentration on the pleasure one
is now experiencing rather than on the pleasurable object causes the pleasure to
disappear
 Two aspects of pleasure - Objective & Subjective
 Objective - Nature/General
 Subjective - Individual/Personal
 There is nothing wrong in seeking pleasure for its own sake but it must be done
within proper measure
 Pleasure is an end and a good, but it is not the last end and the highest good