Hedonism Counts a Fond Memory as Pleasure and a Stubbed Toe as Pain
Hedonism's distinctive claim is not that pleasure is nice. It is that pleasure and pain are the only things of ultimate importance — a thesis that makes the theory at once simple and hard to live with. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy's examples show how broadly hedonists draw those two terms: a gentle massage and recalling a fond memory are both considered to cause pleasure, while stubbing a toe and hearing about the death of a loved one are both considered to cause pain. Once the ledger includes memory and bereavement alongside massage and stubbed toes, the doctrine stops looking like an argument for indulgence and starts looking like a claim about what is of ultimate importance.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
Including grief alongside physical discomfort makes this broader than a doctrine of indulgence. But does calling bereavement pain capture everything that matters about losing someone?
The breadth is the point rather than a bug. The theory's real bite is the denial that anything besides pleasure and pain is of ultimate importance, which is stranger than the caricature of hedonism as a doctrine of indulgence.