Hedonism Essay Research Paper HedonismWebster free essay sample

Hedonism Essay, Research Paper Hedonism Webster # 8217 ; s dictionary defines hedonism as # 8220 ; the ethical philosophy that pleasance, diversely conceived of in footings of felicity of the person or of society, is the chief good and the proper purpose of action # 8221 ; or # 8220 ; the theory that a individual ever acts is such a manner as to seek pleasance and avoid pain. # 8221 ; With this definition in head, and with farther scrutiny of John Stuart Mill # 8217 ; s theory on hedonism, I am traveling to reason that hedonism is non an sole or distinguishable manner of believing. In fact, I think that with the exclusion of perchance a few people, most people are really hedonistically inclined. # 8220 ; Hedonistic utilitarians place felicity with tiping pleasance and avoiding hurting, significance that the more an single enjoys pleasance and avoids hurting, the happier that person is # 8221 ; ( phil.tamu.edu ) . Now, is this truly a new and profound idea? If you avoid hurting, you will take a happier life? With a few exclusions, I don # 8217 ; t cognize many people who see hurting as enjoyment. Most people I know have made it a point to enjoy themselves in so me fasion or McDonald 2 another, and that doesn # 8217 ; t include the enjoyment of hurting. # 8220 ; Mill # 8217 ; s overall topic is the right of the indivieual to believe and move for himeself of herself. For Mill this does non intend the right to believe and move as you please ( Castell 360 ) . Eventhough Mill encouraged independent idea and actions, he did non warrant running about and making whatever you liked. Harmonizing to the Hedonic Society, what they call Enlightened Hedonism ( # 8221 ; a realistic and humanistic lifestance advocation the ration cultivation of pleasance and felicity for all # 8221 ; ) can be stated in six rules: 1. Knowledge is gained through a reasoned survey of all available grounds. 2. In the absence of conclusive grounds for a supernatural, moralss and morality must be based on our life in the natural universe. 3. Pleasure and hurting are our natural agencies for finding what is good or harmful to life. 4. Those actions are best which lead to the greatest pleasance and felicity, or the least hurting and agony, in the long term for all concerned. McDonald 3 5. Our lives are made most happy and fulfilling by cultivating the higher pleasances of rational development, aesthetic grasp and creativeness, and societal bonds of friendly relationship, household and romantic love. 6. Happiness is best attained in an ambiance of freedom, tolerance, passive resistance and diverseness. The Hedonic society besides states that the moralss of enlightened hedonism is a positive, dynamic and life- confirming alternate to traditional spiritual and political tenet. In today # 8217 ; s footings, when you hear person speak of hedonism, your head automatically goes to tie ining sex, orgasms, and all other types of physical pleasance with the term hedonism. The of import thing to maintain in head, nevertheless is that hedonism does non merely include physical pleasance. It is possible to endeavor to accomplish felicity and exhilaration, and at the same clip avoid unhappiness and anxiousness. This is besides a hedonic manner of idea. Hedonism is non the chase strictly physical. It is possible to be intellectually hedonic every bit good. And, Hedonism is non based entirely on the person. It is to be the greatest sum of good possible for the greatest sum of people. McDonald 4 So merely because you want to something, and carry through your O riginal desire/want/need, doesn’t mean that it is right to make it. You have to take into history what would profit others every bit good. # 8220 ; By each of us traveling instantly for that which we most want, which would give us the most pleasance, is for the greatest possible good to be accomplished # 8230 ; ( Stanford ) . # 8221 ; Mill says that the ideal manner to be is a small spot of both physically and intellectually hedonic. He introduces the Competent Judge Test ( CJT ) to conflict common expostulations he faces against hedonic utilitarianism. The expostulation stems from the philosophical contention between bodily ( feeding, imbibing, and sex, but besides things like exercising ) and rational ( art, literature, doctrine, and scientific discipline ) pleasances, and the comparative value of each of those pleasances ( phil.tamu ) . # 8220 ; Since hedonic useful define felicity in footings of pleasance and the absence of hurting, they are unfastened to the expostulation that their position give human existences # 8217 ; lives no higher intent than that of any animate being. Mill calls this # 8216 ; the philosophy of swine objection. # 8217 ; # 8230 ; Mill grounds that if what gives a human being pleasance ( and/or hurting ) is radically different than what gives it to an animate being, so what counts as homo felicity will be radically different # 8221 ; ( phil.tamu ) . Intellectual pleasances are superior to the physical pleasances, and Mill says that McDonald 5 his CJT proves it. # 8220 ; Of tow pleasances, if there be one to which all of about all who have experience of both give a distinct penchant, irrespective or any feeling of moral duty to prefer it, that is the more desirable pleasance # 8221 ; ( phil.tamu ) . Mill has four different constituents that are a portion of the testing of qualitative high quality ; 1 ) Who the competent Judgess are ; 2 ) What sort of bulk of them must give ; 3 ) What sort of penchant to one sort of pleasance over another for it to be judged the higher choice pleasance ; and 4 ) What this qualitative difference implies about the comparative value of pleasance of the two sorts. He besides presents the Four Steps of CJT ; 1 ) Identify the competent Judgess ; 2 ) See if any of them prefer Ten over Y ; 3 ) Ask if the penchant for X over Y is shared by certain features ; 4 ) If # 3 is true, so we are justified in reasoning that X is someway superior ( phil.tamu ) . Mill says that if you substitute rational pleasances for # 8220 ; X # 8221 ; and bodily pleasances for # 8220 ; Y, # 8221 ; so # 8220 ; X # 8221 ; is # 8220 ; qualitatively superior # 8221 ; to # 8220 ; Y. # 8221 ; However, like I stated above, each individual in their ain facet has some hedonism in them someplace. I would reason that in order to hold a comparatively balanced life, you would include both physical McDonald 6 and rational facets of your life. Whether or non you would be labeled a # 8220 ; Hedonist # 8221 ; would stay to be seen. If you incorporate the greater demands of others into your single immediate demands, so technically, yes, that would be Hedonism. But, I would venture to state that you would be labeled # 8220 ; a nice person. # 8221 ; Castell, Alburey, et al. , Introduction to Moern Doctrine: Analyzing the Human Condition. ( New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001 ) . # 8220 ; Hedonism. # 8221 ; Stanford University ( online ) www.stanford.edu/~quixote/philosophies.htm # hedonism* . ( 12/03/2001 ) . # 8220 ; John Stuart Mill. # 8221 ; unknown ( on-line ) *www-/ phil.tamu.edu/~gary/intro/lecture.mill_1.html. ( 12/03/2001 ) . # 8220 ; What is Enlightened Hedonism? # 8221 ; Hedonic Society ( online ) *www.hedonicsociety.org/custom/html* . ( 12/03/2001 ) .