What Is Hedonism? Definition, Types & Ethics

Question

What is hedonism, and how could anyone think that pleasure is the good? The view is at once the most natural of the ethical theories and the most criticized, and its examination is the best introduction to the question of what makes life good.

Quick Answer

Hedonism is the philosophical view that pleasure is the good: the only intrinsic good is pleasure, and the good life is the life of pleasure. It has two main forms. Psychological hedonism is the descriptive claim that pleasure is in fact the only thing people desire — that all motivation, however complex, reduces to the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Ethical hedonism is the normative claim that pleasure is the only thing worth desiring — that the right action is the one that maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain for all affected. The most famous ancient hedonist is Epicurus, whose hedonism was not the pursuit of luxury but the pursuit of tranquility: the pleasure of the absence of pain (ataraxia), achieved through simplicity, friendship, and the management of desire. The most influential modern hedonists are the utilitarians: Bentham, who measured pleasure by its intensity, duration, and extent — the "felicific calculus" — and Mill, who distinguished the higher pleasures of the mind from the lower pleasures of the body, holding that "it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied." The great objection is Nozick's experience machine: if pleasure were the only good, we would plug into the machine that gives us the experience of the perfect life; but we would not, because we want the reality, not merely the experience — and the objection shows that the good life includes more than pleasure.

Historical Wisdom

Hedonism has ancient roots and modern flowering. The ancient hedonism of Epicurus and the Cyrenaics made pleasure the end of life, but the hedonism was not the vulgar pursuit of the indulgence: Epicurus taught that the greatest pleasure is the tranquility of the absence of pain, and that the discipline of desire — the simple food, the friendship, the freedom from the fear of death — is the path to the pleasure. The modern hedonism was developed by the utilitarians: Bentham's Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789) made pleasure the standard of the right — "the greatest happiness of the greatest number" — and Mill's Utilitarianism (1863) refined the account with the distinction of the higher and the lower pleasures. The tradition was criticized by Aristotle, who argued that the good life is not the life of pleasure but the life of activity in accordance with virtue — the pleasure is the byproduct of the activity, not the goal — and the criticism remains the standard objection to the simple hedonism.

Philosophical Perspectives

Hedonism has three components to examine. The psychological claim: is it true that all motivation reduces to the pursuit of pleasure? The claim is plausible in its weak form — the people avoid the pain and seek the satisfaction — but false in its strong form — the person who sacrifices the comfort for the child, the cause, or the truth is not seeking the pleasure but the good. The ethical claim: is pleasure the only intrinsic good? The objections are the objects of the value that are not pleasures: the knowledge, the virtue, the love, the achievement — the things we value for their own sake, not for the pleasure they bring. The experiential claim: is the good life the life of the pleasant experience? Nozick's experience machine is the test: the machine would give the experience of the perfect life without the reality, and the refusal to plug in shows that we value the reality — the engagement with the world, the achievement, the love — not merely the experience.

The utilitarian refinement answers part of the objection. Mill's distinction of the higher and the lower pleasures: the pleasures of the mind are better than the pleasures of the body, because the competent judges prefer them — "the pleasures of the intellect, of the feelings and imagination, and of the moral sentiments" are higher than "the pleasures of mere sensation." The refinement makes the hedonism less vulnerable to the crude objections, but the deeper objection remains: the good life is not merely the pleasant experience but the meaningful activity, and the meaning is not reducible to the pleasure.

Lessons From Thinkers

From Epicurus: the hedonism of tranquility — the greatest pleasure is the absence of pain, achieved by the discipline of desire. From Mill: the distinction — the higher pleasures of the mind are better than the lower pleasures of the body. From Aristotle: the objection — the good life is the life of activity in accordance with virtue, and the pleasure is the byproduct, not the goal.

Practical Application

The examination of hedonism has direct practical application. For the person: the distinction between the pleasures — the higher and the lower, the sustainable and the destructive — is the practical core of the hedonist's wisdom: the pleasure that costs the health, the relationship, or the integrity is not a good; the pleasure of the work, the love, and the achievement is. For the hedonist's error: the pursuit of the pleasure as the goal is self-defeating — the person who chases the pleasure directly misses it, and the person who engages the world — the work, the love, the meaning — finds the pleasure as the byproduct. For the ethics: the utilitarian calculation is the reminder that the consequences matter, and that the happiness of all affected is the measure of the action.

Quotes

Epicurus states the hedonism of tranquility: "When we say that pleasure is the end, we do not mean the pleasures of the profligate... but the freedom from pain in the body and disturbance in the mind." Mill states the distinction: "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied." And Nozick states the objection: "We would not plug into the experience machine, because we want to do things, not merely to have the experiences of doing them."

Related Questions

• What Is Utilitarianism? — the modern hedonism.
• What Is Epicureanism? — the ancient hedonism.
• What Is the Good Life? — the question hedonism answers.
• What Is Happiness? — the wider wisdom on the end.