Pleasure Essays

Epicurus describes pleasure as “the alpha and omega of blessed life”. By this he means that it is a something that influences our choices and decision since we seek pleasure when we are in the absence of it. To further elaborate on this, it is something that we seek in the beginning of our life, guides our choices throughout and we continue to attain pleasures till the end of our life. Epicurus goes on to say that not all pleasures satisfy our personal needs and at times we submit ourselves to pain

I will agree with Mill and argue that higher pleasures are better than lower pleasures. In Mill’s essay, he defines Utilitarianism: ‘’actions are right in the proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure’’ (Mill, 7). Therefore, Utilitarianism according to Mill considers actions to be right or wrong based on whether or not they make

believes that all sentient creators are psychologically hedonistic; that we naturally seek out pleasures and avoid pains (Pg. 88). As a utilitarian, he focuses on ethical hedonism, the idea that we ought to maximize our happiness. To Mill, the right actions to take are those that promote happiness, the wrong actions to take are those that promote pain (Pg. 90). Mill defines happiness as feeling many kinds of pleasures and only few temporary pains in our lifetime (Pg. 89). Like Bentham and Epicurean, Mill

what is good for humans, what motivate us to behave and how we should do it, all of the hedonistic theories catalog pleasure and pain as the most important element of the life of a human being. Hedonists states that all the pleasure you can feel as a human, is intrinsically valuable and pain is intrinsically not valuable, by intrinsically we mean essential, necessary. the Pleasure Machine most known as The Experience machine is a thoughtful experiment proposed by Robert Nozick in his book Anarchy

The Form of the Good in Book VI, is the ultimate object of knowledge. The Form of the Good is the source of all other Forms. It is the source of the entire intelligible realm, of intelligibility itself, and to describe the Form of the Good explicitly, he attempts to give us a sense of it by comparing it to the sun, as in the Allegory of the Cave. It is only when a man grabs the Form of the Good that he achieves the highest level of cognition and understanding. When a man takes this last step, he

was a chance to save all six people, then that would definitely be the best option, but this is not the case. The philosophy of Mill would propose a way to handle this. He described his method as a hierarchy of pleasures, which is determined by qualitative distinctions. The higher pleasures would be more focused on the mind instead of the body. In this situation, he would state that our sole focus should be “the greatest happiness for the greatest number”. His decision would be to save the five adults

tells the real story of Christopher McCandless, who unlike the rest of us despised materialistic pleasures. McCandless in the April of 1992,set off alone into the Alaskan wild. He had given all of his savings to charity, abandoned his car and his possessions. Unlike others, he wanted to live a life of independence, free from materialistic pleasures and filled with nature and it’s beauty. In addition, McCandless shed his legal name early in

value is to achieve pleasure and avoid pain at all costs. People who follow this ideological way of life define pain and pleasure as the only two things with intrinsic value, meaning that they can identify what’s is “good” or “bad”, if they produce pain or pleasure, making pleasure the ultimate good, and pain “bad”. Continuously pleasure or happiness can be achieved by indulging on physical indulgences, like drinking, eating and sex, now all of this can only give you physical pleasure and usually doesn’t

foundation of morals. Stuart argues that more needs to be discussed concerning this theory, in particular what counts as pain and pleasure, and to what extent its left an open question (book, pg 1, p 258). However, Stuart goes on to explain that the clarifications needed do not affect the theory of life this theory of morality is based on. Nor does it affect the fact that (1) pleasure and freedom from pain are the only desirable

explaining to the readers what utility is, Utility is defined as pleasure itself, and the absence of pain. This leads us to another name for utility which is the greatest happiness principle. Mill claims that “actions are right in proportions as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” “By Happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain, by happiness, pain and the privation of pleasure”. (Mill, utilitarianism, p.697) To put this into simpler terms

Rethinking Principle of Utility What is the guideline of your behavior and what does pleasure means to you? In Bentham’s book An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, he gives a detailed explanation of principle of utility, a series of principles of behaviors. He thinks it is pleasure and pain that determine what human beings should do, and the motivation of humans’ behaviors can be attributed to the pursuit of happiness or the evasion of pain. Besides, he states that a good action

expressing the notion of pleasure. It allows explanation to the perspective of the theory that consequences are to be considered according to the value of whether they are of quality or quantity. Mill points to these views being in correspondence with the natural desires or pleasures of the human being. Substantiation to this is from the view that the desires of people are based on their ability (of that which is desired) to create, maintain, or increase the state of pleasure. Mill address that the

Hedonism postulates that pleasure is the all and only bearer of intrinsic value and pain is all and only bearer of intrinsic disvalue. In this essay I will evaluate the coherence of the normative version of Hedonism, defined as the theory that says pleasure should be pursued and pain should be avoided and that the right action is the one that produces the greatest amount of net happiness. Prudential hedonism talks about pleasure being good for the one experiencing it. I will examine if this type

least amount of pain and pleasure for the more vast amount of individuals (majority). Utilitarianism is rather a mechanism to find the ‘common ground’ between individuals of different mindsets, and, therefore, make a mutualistic agreement that will either bring great joy, or cause the least destruction. Two philosophers, Jeremy Bentham, the first philosopher to having thought of this concept, and John Stuart Mill, the philosopher who emphasized certain extent of a pleasure are considered great influences

because of Mill’s concept of higher and lower pleasures . This paper is broken into two main sections. I will begin by outlining Mill’s Hedonistic Utilitarianism. Then I will present a major challenge for Mill’s view - Nozick’s ultimate pleasure concept- and why it fails to defeat Mill’s hedonistic utilitarianism. As stated in the introduction, utilitarianism is the ethical

archrivals in the contest over identifying what makes one’s life better. It is surprising, then, that the most plausible form of hedonism is desire satisfactionism. The hedonism theory focuses on pleasure/happiness while the desire-satisfaction theory elucidates the relevance of fulfilling our desires. Pleasure, in some points of view is the subjective satisfaction of desire. I will explain the similarities and the differences between the desire-satisfaction theory of value and hedonism. I will also

action, because they emphasize on creating the most beneficial pleasure and happiness in the outcome of an act. Despite this fact, they both have different principles and rules that make them different from each other. Act utilitarianism concentrates on the acts of individuals. Meaning that if a person commits an action, he/she must at least have a positive utility. The founders of utilitarianism define positive utility as happiness and pleasure and consider it to be a driving force of all positive and

theory that one ought to only pursue one’s pleasure as an ultimate end” (Larveson, L7). He proposes that since sensations are what define us, which include pleasure and pain, learning how to maximize pleasure and minimize pain is how to live a virtuous life or the good life (Epicurus, pg. 59). Thus, our actions that we do lies in that it maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain for us. Although he did say only rightfully act if it would result in pleasure, he did not recommend living extravagantly.

Pleasure is the feeling of good. Humans find pleasure in many ways, one is success, another is pride, and the list goes on. Disquietude is the emotion of unease or discomfort. People can feel disquietude when learning of or experiencing something unpleasant. World War Two is heavily characterized by pleasure and disquietude. Every victory over the Nazis brought pleasure to allied troops but also disquietude with how victory had been achieved. This sensation translates well into Kurt Vonnegut's work

the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure.”(Mill 1863) http://www.utilitarianism.com/mill2.htm Utilitarianism states that pleasure and happiness are intrinsically valuable and that pain and suffering are intrinsically invaluable and that every action that has value should either promote happiness or impede suffering. This emphasis on happiness or pleasure as a guide to making moral decisions, makes it a