Hedone+ism
HEDONISM
The pursuit of pleasure
Dr. Kabita Das
Department of Philosophy
INTRODUCTION
Pleasure is the ultimate standard of human life.
It derives from the Greek term “delight”
hedone “pleasure” + ism = HEDONISM
It argues that pleasure is the intrinsic good that human being
only requires.
In mind the feelings of pleasure occurs in different
situations.
It focuses on minimum pain and maximum pleasure.
Hedonist is regarded as a person who is devoted the life to
seek pleasure and self gratification
It implicates happiness, satisfaction as well as enjoyment.
It claims that good life and good living contains lots of
enjoyment through every part of life.
HEDONISM: The pursuit of pleasure
Hedone stands for pleasure and it is the supreme end of life.
Pleasure comes in mind in various condition
Ethical Hedonism Psychological Hedonism
Pleasure is the only quality
Egoistic Universalistic which an experiencing is
good or valuable
Gross Refined
A good action is an
action which leads to a
pleasant experience as its
Gross Utilitarianism Refined Utilitarianism consequence
So it’s a theory what men
ought to desire
Psychological Hedonism
The motive and also the aim of human action is only pleasure.
A human being always avoid pain and every time seeks
pleasure.
Every individual seeking of pleasure is different.
This theory aims that the continuous pursuit of a human being is
nothing but pleasure.
It is regarded as a description as what kind of happiness is
present in our mind.
Criticism
• The word “pleasure” is an ambiguous term.
• When a being perform action under stress it can not be
regarded as pleasurable action.
• It fails to distinguish between “pleasure in idea” and the “actual
pleasure”.
• It give importance to pleasure over the satisfaction of want
Jeremy Bentham Utilitarianism
One should perform the act that produces the greatest all those
happiness only quantitatively.
The Greatest good for greatest number. All Pleasures physical and
mental are alike in nature and the value of pleasure consists entirely
in the quantity of agreeable experiences that it produces.
Quantity is the only standard for the valuation of pleasure. It has
seven dimension of value.
Bentham Hedonistic Calculus
1. Intensity: How strong is the pleasure?
2. Duration: How long will the pleasure last?
3. Certainty or uncertainty: How likely or unlikely is it that the pleasure will occur?
4. Propinquity or remoteness: How near or far in space and time is it?
5. Fecundity: How likely is it to produce other pleasures?
6. Purity: How unmixed with pain is it?
7. Extent: How many people experience the pleasure.
This had special status as the last part of the "greatest good for the
greatest number" formula.
Bentham position may also be called Altruism because he takes into account the
extent or the number of persons affected by the given pleasure.
Bentham explain this transition from egoism to altruism into his hedonistic
doctrine or frame work. This transition from egoism to altruism by means of four
external sanctions
i. Physical sanction: life, health, bodily growth. If disobey will lead to painful
consequences .
ii. Social sanction: social relationship
iii. Political sanction; disobeyed bring punishment
iv. Religious sanction; fear of punishment and reward of heaven Passes egoism to
altruism under the pressure of these external sanction
CRITICISM
The hedonistic calculus of Bentham is impracticable . The feeling of
pleasure and pain are subjective and variable . Therefore they cannot
be quantitatively measured in the way Bentham thinks.
Altruism is not satisfactory transition egoism over altruism. Support of
altruism with egoism as the permis basis
John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism writes that “the Greatest
Happiness Principle” is:
An existence exempt as far as possible from pain, and as rich as possible in enjoyments,
both in point of quantity and quality; the test of quality, and the rule for measuring it against
quantity, being the preference felt by those who in their opportunities of experience, to
which must be added their habits of self-consciousness and self-observation, are best
furnished with the means of comparison. This being, according to the utilitarian opinion,
the end of human action, is necessarily also the standard of morality; which may
accordingly be defined, the rules and precepts for human conduct, by the observance of
which an existence such as has been described might be, to the greatest extent possible,
secured to all mankind; and not to them only, but, so far as the nature of things admits, to
the whole sentient creation.
John Stuart Mill saw that the problem of calculating the amount of happiness had to
take into account the type of pleasure as well as its intensity and quantity as
Bentham did.
Mill thought that Moral and Intellectual pleasures were greater than sensual.
His famous example is that we would rather be human than a perfectly satisfied pig.
CRITICISM
1. Difficulty of balancing different kinds of pleasures and pains.
2. There are other goods besides pleasure.
3. Does not respect the dignity and worth of individuals. The needs of the many
always outweigh the needs of the few.
REFERENCE
Miklos, A. & Tanyi, A., (2019) Consequentialism and its demands: The
role of institutions. SSRN Electronic journal. ResearchGate.
Doi:10.2139/ssrn.3333408
Mondal, L. A.,(2016) Mill critique of Benthams’s Utilitarianism.
International journal of philosophy study. Volume-4 , doi:
10.14355/ijps.2016.04.003
