Hedonism describes wellbeing by two words: pleasure and pain. In particular, the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain. Thus, wellbeing is seen as the greater balance of pleasure over pain (Crisp, 2017). It is a subjective theory, in that an individual can describe what increases his wellbeing. For example, individual X may gain happiness by reading a book and individual Y may gain happiness by counting the blades of grass in his garden. Proponents of hedonism would argue that individuals X and Y should do these acts that make them happy in order to increase their wellbeing.
There are many types of hedonism: psychological hedonism, moral hedonism and evaluative hedonism. According to psychological hedonism, an individual’s actions are intended for their own pleasure. For example, if an individual is writing an essay, he is doing so because he is receiving pleasure or anticipating pleasure from it. Moral hedonism “is the view the people ought to act to get pleasure and avoid pain” (Morton, 1996, p. 187). For example, if an individual attains pleasure from watching movies, he ought to watch movies as long as it does not cause him pain. Evaluative hedonism is that “wellbeing consists in the greatest balance of pleasure over pain” (Crisp, 2017).
As opposed to utilitarianism, where an individual should act according to everyone’s pleasure, hedonism argues that an individual should act for their own pleasure.
Mill makes an argument that “no reason can be given why… happiness is desirable, except that each person, so far as he believes it to be attainable, desires his own happiness” (Mill, 1865 cited in Morton, 1996, p. 196). This argument is displaying that happiness is intuitively desired. It can be formulated as:
1. People desire happiness
2. What people desire is good for their wellbeing
3. Therefore happiness is good and desirable.
The first premise is argued from perspective of intuitiveness. Humans generally desire happiness in whatever they do. Individuals strive for bigger houses, more expensive cars, more possessions, more money or even the opposite – they may strive to live a life of minimalism. “Many would agree that happiness has remained difficult to define and challenging to measure” (Kringelback & Berridge, 2010).
It is through the second premise where an objection to hedonism arises. It seems possible to think of pleasures that are bad and that do not seem to improve wellbeing. For example, smoking. An individual may get pleasure from smoking, however this affects health and mental wellbeing, so it seems counterintuitive to argue that smoking improves wellbeing. Scientists note that “tobacco smoking increases the risk of contracting a wide range of diseases, many of which are fatal… tobacco smoking is estimated to lead to the premature death of approximately six million people worldwide and 96,000 in the UK each year” (West, 2017). Ultimately, this problem leads to an issue with what classifies as pleasure. Either it has to be argued that seeking pleasure does not lead to an improvement in wellbeing, or that an individual is mistaken in what he says he derives pleasure from. If the latter is argued, then the hedonist forfeits being a crucial element of hedonism – being a subjective theory, and this is not possible.
Moreover, the objection that seeking pleasure does not always lead to an improvement in wellbeing is a notion found in Eastern mystical thought, particularly that of Sufism. Al-Iskandarani states that “a mubah is a mountain pass between an individual and a makruh act. The person who commits it in excess will move towards committing makruh acts” (Muhasibi, 2006, p. 67). A further argument is made by Shaykh al-Islam Sayyid Madni Miya Ashrafi that constantly seeking pleasure is animalistic and does not befit humans (refer to Tafsir Ashrafi - chapter Surah Asr).
In summary, ponder upon your own life. How would life be with a greater balance of pleasure over pain? Or does wellbeing consist of more than just pleasure?
References:
Crisp, R. 2017. “Well-Being”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edward N. Zalta (ed.) Available at: <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/well-being/>.
Kringelback, M. & Berridge, K. 2010. The Neuroscience of Happiness and Pleasure. Social research vol 77,2. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3008658/
Morton, A. 1996. Philosophy in Practice. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Muhasibi, H. 2006. The Sunnah Way of the Sufis. Karachi: Zam Zam Publishers
West, R. 2017. Tobacco Smoking: Health impact, prevalence, correlates and interventions. Psychology & health, vol32(8). https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2017.1325890
Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5490618/
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