Hedonism

Abstract

The word ‘hedonism’ comes from the ancient Greek for‘pleasure’. Psychological or motivational hedonism claimsthat only pleasure or pain motivates us. Ethical or evaluative hedonismclaims that only pleasure has worth or value and only pain ordispleasure has disvalue or the opposite of worth. Jeremy Benthamasserted both psychological and ethical hedonism with the first twosentences of his book An Introduction to the Principles of Moralsand Legislation: “Nature has placed mankind under thegovernance of two sovereign masters, pain, andpleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought todo, as well as to determine what we shall do”. Debate abouthedonism was a feature too of many centuries before Bentham, and thishas also continued after him. Other key contributors to debate overhedonism include Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Aquinas, Butler, Hume,Mill, Nietzsche, Brentano, Sidgwick, Moore, Ross, Broad, Ryle andChisholm.