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Hedonism theory of well being
Hedonism theory of well being
Hedonism and happiness
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The literal meaning of Blasé is “unimpressed with, or indifferent to something because one has experienced or seen it so often before”. It can also be interpreted as being bored from over indulgence. In the last couple of years i have been exploring my own and other people’s constant need in stimulation and inspiration for their daily life. Personally, my biggest fear could be described as a horror scenario in which someone would one day tell me: starting now, every day of your life, will look the same. Stable routine repeating itself again and again, without surprises, no changes, xxx. Additionally, i’m also interested in the delicate tension exiting between being constantly stimulated versus being worn out, bored or over stimulated. Becoming Blasé is a condition commonly found in highly urbanized environments. Consequently, I reached out to people, to discover whether they feel Blasé and what is their preferences in gaining pleasure, seeking inspiration and exploring their inner voice and individual mindfulness. The target audience I ask to attract can be described as urban, highly cultural, either free lance creatives or whom working in more structured organizations, achievers, which are curious and open minded. They maintain a productive working routine, however take brake periodically to travel, party, …show more content…
It refers to theory of xxx which things are good for us and what motivates us to behave in a certain way. In hedonism, gaining pleasure and avoiding pain are the only important things in living the good life. However, what is pleasure and pain is described quite broadly. That specific insight can relate to the theory of folk hedonism, a philosophical term which bears the common stereotype of a person who is concerned with only indulging in sex, drugs and rocknrol, while lacking foresight and sometimes might lead to problems, conflicts and
Hedonism is a theory of morality. There are several popular philosophers who support hedonism; some of whom offer their own interpretation of the theory. This paper will focus on the Epicurean view. Epicurus, a Greek philosophers born in 341 B.C., generated a significant measure of controversy amongst laymen and philosophical circles in regards to his view of the good life. Philosophers whom teachings predate Epicurus’ tended to focus on the question of “How can human beings live a good, morally sound, life?” Epicurus ruffled feathers and ultimately expanded the scope of philosophy by asking “What makes people happy?”
In chapter 2, Shafer-Landau proceeds to list the theories that attempt to disprove hedonism by highlight the shortcomings in its logic and hedonism's replies to these objections. The Argument from Autonomy, is one of strongest objections to hedonism listed. Shafer-Landau states that for a theory to pose a serious threat to hedonism, it needs to challenge the idea that happiness is the only thing of intrinsic value (34). Chapter 2 discuses four strong objections that have the potential and support to disprove hedonism. The Argument from Autonomy provides an abundance of strong information to support its claims.
As humans we are constantly in search of understanding the balance between what feels good and what is right. Humans try to take full advantage of experiencing pleasure to its fullest potential. Hedonism claims that pleasure is the highest and only source of essential significance. If the notion of hedonism is truthful, happiness is directly correlated with pleasure. Robert Nozick presented the philosophical world with his though experiment, “The Experience Machine” in order to dispute the existence and validity of hedonism. Nozick’s thought experiment poses the question of whether or not humans would plug into a machine which produces any desired experience. Nozick weakens the notion of hedonism through his thought experiment, claiming humans need more than just pleasure in their lives. Nozick discovers that humans would not hook up to this machine because they would not fully develop as a person and consider it a form of suicide.
From this one could say it is actually difficult to determine if one’s life is good or better than another’s life. As you look at the theory of Quantitative Hedonism, the presence of pleasure and absence of pain are the only aspects that can determine an intrinsically good life. To further explain this idea, I will use the example of the deceived business man. A businessman believed that his life was good and he experienced plenty of pleasure in his life to make his life good, so since that’s what he thought, it was true to him. However, behind the aspects of just how he felt about himself and his life, in actuality his wife was cheating on him and someone was stealing from him. Therefore, making it evident that his life was not good. Nonetheless, after you look at it from the Objective List Theory, the view on the man’s life and situation alters. From an outer look of this theory, the average observer would say that he really hasn’t achieved anything in his life. He is letting other people run his life because of the way he views his values and well - being, therefore, resulting in him being cheated on and deceived by the people around him and consequently takes away his freedom and knowledge of his own life. He becomes unaware of the circumstances he is in as well as the people he is associated himself with and
Epicurus was admittedly a Hedonist, and this philosophy has had a huge influence on his work. Especially so on his death argument. Hedonism is, “the doctrine that pleasure is the only thing that is good in itself for a person, pain the only thing that is bad in itself for a person.”
Inside of the book The Best Things in Life: A Guide to What Really Matters, by Thomas Hurka, there are three major theories of the good life and well-being. These include Ethical Hedonism, Desire Satisfaction Theory, and Objectivism. Ethical Hedonisms stance is that something is intrinsically good for you if and only if it is a state of pleasure. Your well-being improves when and only when you experience pleasure. Desire Satisfaction Theory has a few more layers to it. There are four different versions. All of them have to deal with satisfying something that is intrinsically good for you, they just vary based on what kinds of desires are being satisfied, if you wanted it at the time the desire was achieved, who the desires pertains to, and
...ng what to do with their new found leisure time. Boredom ultimately results in the existential vacuum and has been found as an underlying factor in depression, aggression, and addiction.
Hedonism means to live only for pleasure. It means not thinking about the consequences of your actions as long as make you happy. It’s a total abandon of all responsibilities. This type of lifestyle often has negative results. I mean, look at the hippies, and how their hedonistic society turned out. They are all either in rehab centers or have kids running around with names like “Moonbeam” and “Starchild”. But enough hippie bashing - let’s look at how the Hedonistic way of life is integrated into The Great Gatsby. Let’s take the parties for example. Gatsby has a party just about every week, no matter what. He has tons of people come over, and they party all night. Gatsby has tons of booze at his parties, and no one thinks of consuming anything but alcohol.
In determining what is the foundation of happiness, hedonism claims that it is pleasure with the absence of pain that is the only intrinsic good. An intrinsic good can be described as something that is good in and of itself. It is good not because it leads to something else, it is good for its own sake as compared to an instrumental good, which is a means to an end. Pleasure describes the broad class of mental states that humans experience as positive, enjoyable, or worth seeking. Qualitative hedonists believe that there can be different levels of pleasure, meaning that some will be better than others.
Binge drinking or heavy drinking is a modern description for drinking alcoholic beverages with the primary intention of becoming intoxicated by heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time. It is a kind of purposeful drinking style that is popular in several countries worldwide, and overlaps somewhat with social drinking since it is often done in groups. The degree of intoxication, however, varies between and within various cultures that engage in this practice. A binge on alcohol can occur over hours, last up to several days, or in the event of extended abuse, even weeks. Due to the long-term effects of alcohol misuse, binge drinking is considered to be a major public health issue. The more often a child or adolescent binge drinks and the younger they are the more likely they will develop an alcohol use disorder called alcoholism.
The ethical theory of utilitarianism is associated with the philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Utilitarianism essentially is the theory that good is what causes a person pleasure and evil is what causes a person pain. Bentham’s utilitarianism is sometimes titled Act Utilitarianism because it focuses on individual actions A “right” action, according to Betham, is one that produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Where a “wrong” action is one that would cause more pain than pleasure. Before a person commits an action, they should look at the consequences that it can have on the individual and others. Hedonic Calculus is a method in determining how much pleasure or pain an action will elicit. Hedonic Calculus consists of seven criteria including intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity and extent. Each criteria can be given a score between -10 (worst pain) to +10 (highest pleasure). The action becomes ethical and moral if there is an overall net happiness for everyone that is affected. An acti...
Addiction has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, from my earliest memories of my father, until now as I am a licensed professional in the field of addiction as well as a person in long term recovery myself.
A moral theory should be one’s guide when deciding whether an action is either good or bad, wrong or right. There are many types of moral theories to choose from, but we will only focus on two: utilitarianism and ancient hedonism. These theories meet in their pursuit of something greater, for hedonism it’s personal pleasure while for utilitarianism it is happiness for the greater number of people. In this work, the differences and the similarities of utilitarianism and hedonism will be pointed out after explaining them separately.
Drug addiction is a very big problem in today’s society. Many people have had their lives ruined due to drug addiction. The people that use the drugs don’t even realize that they have an addiction. They continue to use the drug not even realizing that their whole world is crashing down around them. Drug addicts normally lose their family and friends due to drug addiction.
When talking about pleasure there needs to be a distinction between the quality and the quantity. While having many different kinds of pleasures can be considered a good thing, one is more likely to favor quality over quantity. With this distinction in mind, one is more able to quantify their pleasures as higher or lesser pleasures by ascertaining the quality of them. This facilitates the ability to achieve the fundamental moral value that is happiness. In his book Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill offers a defining of utility as pleasure or the absence of pain in addition to the Utility Principle, where “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (Mill 7). Through this principle, Mill emphasizes that it is not enough to show that happiness is an end in itself. Mill’s hedonistic view is one in support of the claim that every human action is motivated by or ought to be motivated by the pursuit of pleasure.