Hedonism (from — “pleasure”, “pleasure”) is a philosophical direction of ethics that considers joy and pleasure to be the highest good and a condition for happiness in a good life. Unlike Epicurus’ definition of enjoyment, hedonism is often used in a negative sense to describe a purely materialistic, self-serving outlook on life.
Philosophy of hedonism
Aristippus (435-355), a contemporary of Socrates, is considered the founder of hedonism. Aristippus distinguishes between two states of the human soul: pleasure as soft, tender, and pain as gu.e.e., the impetuous movement of the soul. Here no distinction is made between types of pleasure, each of which is qualitatively similar to the other in its essence. The path to happiness, according to Aristippus, lies in achieving maximum pleasure while avoiding pain. According to Aristipus, the meaning of life lies precisely in physical satisfaction.
Epicurus describes satisfaction as the principle of a successful life. Epicurus considers the satisfaction of desires to be freedom from reluctance and aversion. The goal in this case is not satisfaction itself, but getting rid of suffering and unhappiness: in the philosophy of happiness of Epicurus, we are talking about achieving it with the help of liberation from anxiety (ataraxia) and pain, not by increased consumption of earthly goods, but thanks to a keen attention to truly necessary needs, among which Epicurus lists friendship.
Utilitarian Jeremy Bentham calls this approach “hedonic prudence.” Henry Sidgwick, in his description of XNUMXth century utilitarianism, distinguishes between ethical and psychological hedonism. Psychological hedonism is an anthropological hypothesis about a person’s desire to increase their own joys. Thus the prospect of satisfaction or the avoidance of disappointment is the only motive for a person’s actions. Ethical hedonism is in turn a normative theory or group of theories that a person should strive for satisfaction — either one’s own (hedonic egoism) or universal (universal hedonism or utilitarianism). In contrast to Sidgwick, who is a supporter of universal hedonism, Bentham wrote:
“Nature has placed man under the power of two sovereign rulers: suffering and joy. They tell us what to do today and they determine what we will do tomorrow. As the measure of truth and falsehood, so the chains of cause and effect rest at their throne.»
The basic paradox of hedonism
To get great pleasures, you need to limit yourself. This formula was derived by Epicurus, but he is not a hedonist, as most mistakenly believe.
references
- A.N. Dolgenko. Decadent hedonism