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greatest possible balance of pleasure over pain for everyone that are affected (Shaw et al. 2013 p67). According to Jeremy Bentham, an action is ethical if the action yield greater utility than alternatives (Shaw et al. 2013 p67). In addition, Bentham evaluate pleasure and pain by quantitative differences, which are intensity and duration (Shaw et al. 2013 p67). According to John Stuart Mills, definition of pleasure is incline intrinsically towards intellectual pleasure and imagination, and stated

Mimesis, Catharsis, and Pleasure: An Investigation into Aristotle’s Tragic Pleasure Bradley Elicker Temple University Abstract: Aristotle writes the Poetics as an investigation into representational art and, more specifically, as an investigation into the art form of tragedy. While Aristotle goes into great detail regarding the technical aspects of creating and appreciating a work of tragedy, he is somewhat lacking in his descriptions of how tragedy is enjoyed by an audience. Aristotle speaks

utilitarianism (Shafer-Landau, 2012b, p. 120). He is not only one of the greatest utilitarians, he is also a hedonist. Hence, he believed that this greatest good can be achieved by focussing all action on attaining the greatest amount of happiness. Mill describes utility as holding ‘that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness’ ((Shafer-Landau, 2012a, p. 17). He defines happiness as pleasure and the absence of pain, and unhappiness

The more happiness you experience, the better your life is. There are actually two schools of thought here, Narrow Hedonism and Preference Hedonism, each with its own definition of happiness. Narrow Hedonism deems happiness a homogeneous state of pleasure, while Preference Hedonism expands the definition to include any state of mind favored by the individual, including pain (yes, pain is happiness, for some). However, the two schools are united in their focus on mental states, which as you will see

Hedonism: Harmless Indoctrination or Something Sinister? Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines Hedonism as, “The belief that pleasure or happiness is the most important goal in life,” which may be true depending on one’s viewpoint. After all, life will be dreary without happiness or some form of pleasure or excitement. Another qualifying reason for Hedonism is its prolonged existence. Hedonism – like other belief systems, has been in existence since ancient times; it’s even older than Christianity

philosopher’s viewpoints on what is needed in order for a person to have a good, fulfilling life. They all included the concepts of pleasure and happiness to some extent in their theories, but they all approached the ideas in different ways. The two hedonists we studied, Epicurus and John Stuart Mill, place heavy emphasis on the importance of pleasure. They both believe that pleasure is a necessity in the ideal life. Jean Kazez agreed with their viewpoints in her theory and said that happiness was a necessity

In his Letter To Menoeceus, Epicurus shares with us how one should go about living a blessed and pleasurable life. He states the is human nature to desire a life devoted to self pleasure. Someone in opposition to Epicurus argument would say that living a life devoted to oneself is not living a blessed life because one is not living by the grace of god. He makes the argument that one should not live a life of fear or pain, and actions that will bring ultimate happiness will lead to achieving wisdom

of hedonism where happiness is equated to pleasure, thus he de developed a system of Utility Calculus. One of his followers, John Stuart Mill, however was dissatisfied, so he redeveloped the system into what is largely known today as the classic ethical theory of “Utilitarianism.” Utilitarianism as defined by MacKinnon and Fiala is a “normative theory that we ought to concern ourselves with the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people” (p.568). It is one of the most famous form of

algorithm to determine the degree or amount of pleasure that a specific action is likely to cause. He called this Hedonic Calculus and it was divided into seven different categories. Bentham based this calculation off of intensity, or the strength of the pleasure, duration or how long the pleasure will last, certainty or how likely it is pleasure will occur, propinquity or how soon the pleasure will occur, fecundity or the likeliness it will be followed by pleasures, purity or probability that feelings of

Pleasure - The Driving Force in all Human Achievement Every choice we make as humans, whether conscious or not, is made with our own pleasure in mind. When we choose to buy a pack of chocolate, go to church, or even go to work, we do it with the goal of maximizing our own pleasure. The choices we make are those that we feel will give us the greatest pleasure. We spend our entire lives trying to maximize pleasure and minimize pain; this is the essence of man. Aristippus was one of the first