O hedonism is not just a philosophical theory, it is primarily a doctrine. ethic. Hedonism arises in Ancient Greece aiming to present a meaning for the walk of life: the search for pleasure, carried out, according to a doctrine, through tasks.
However, hedonism gained different contours and meanings over time. even in the Antique, there were already different positions on hedonism, in Modernity it gained echo among writers and artists libertines, and today it is seen as a relentless pursuit of pleasure as a means of making sense of an absent life from him.
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concept of hedonism
Hedonism comes from the Greek Hedonez — name of a guide, a daemon or a goddess, in Greek mythology, who represents pleasure. Daughter of Eros and Psyche, Hedonê was the embodied representation of a pleasurable life. Hedonism is a doctrine, or philosophy of life, that defends the search for pleasure as the purpose of human life. Seeking pleasure is what moves the passions, desires and the whole mechanism of life, being, therefore, in the view of hedonists, the first and most complete bridge to the ultimate purpose of life: happiness.
history of hedonism
Hedonism appears in Classical Antiquity, more precisely in the transition from classical philosophy to Hellenistic philosophy. It was created by the Greek philosopher Cyrene's Aristype. He believed as well as Aristotle, there is a purpose for human life. However, Aristotle placed the target of this end on happiness, while Aristippus cultivated the idea of finality in pleasure. Aristippus' hedonism was simply a theory that guided life through the full pursuit of pleasure.
![Epicurus was one of the philosophers who defended hedonism as a legitimate way of life, including to curb and dominate desires.[1]](/f/a44fc765921723fd4d76fb0601c41d54.jpg)
ancient hedonism
In order to understand hedonism as a doctrine, we must reach its emergence in Aristippus and move on to another Greek thinker, but this time a Hellenist: Epicurus of Samos. Epicurus inaugurates a complex Hellenistic philosophical doctrine known to posterity as Epicureanism. Epicureanism was so complex and striking that it became known as one of the philosophical schools of the Hellenistic period. Epicurus, in his theory, elaborated a physics with propositions for understanding the organization of nature. On the other hand, the philosopher articulated an ethics that points to a doctrine of life centered on selective hedonism: life must be guided by the search for natural pleasures.
Renaissance Hedonism
During the renascentism, there was a resumption of certain moral, cultural and epistemological values from Greco-Roman antiquity. Along with this resumption came the valuing life, sensory pleasures and the body, which was prohibited during the Middle Ages. If the Middle Ages were the anti-hedonist period par excellence, the Renaissance brought the sudden resumption of the defense of the right to pleasure, even to intellectual pleasure.
Hedonism in Modernity
At Morderliness, a historical period between the end of the Renaissance and the mid-19th century, hedonism gained distinct contours and directions. On the one hand, there was the Catholic Church and the Protestant strands (the latter even more radical) that vehemently condemned him. On the other hand, the personality of the average modern man and of a certain intellectual, artistic and bourgeois elite was the perfect face of hedonism.
Big balls celebrating life and pleasures they were given, the halls filled with people in literary rooms, reciting hedonistic poetry; artists, writers, intellectuals and bourgeois united for the joint pursuit of pleasure. It was in this context that the most representative, radical and controversial personality of the hedonism in literature: Donatien Alphonse François de Sade or simply Marquis de Sade. In moral theory, hedonism gained prominence in the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.
Hedonism in our day
Contemporary is hedonistic. We are people increasingly surrounded by our individualism, which, taking a selfish format, makes the ego seek only pleasure and immediate and individual satisfaction. We are neither that ideal Epicurean model nor the good vivant of modern bourgeois circles. We are hedonistic consumers because pleasure in our time has become synonymous with consumption. We are also people who seek pleasure in superficial and fleeting relationships, as the Polish sociologist analyzed Zygmunt Bauman, who see affective bonds as liquids that mold and break easily.
Sex, which for a long time was seen by Christian culture as a symbol protected by the sacred divine blessing through marriage, is again seen as a simple act of pleasure. This for women, as there was no Christian culture that held the male craving for sexual pleasure, whether in brothels, or with lovers, slaves, whether consensual sex or rape.
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Epicurean Hedonism
Epicurus, Greek philosopher of the Hellenistic period, became responsible for a philosophical school that came to be called Epicureanism, after its founder. Between Greece and Rome, Epicureanism was widespread for centuries, being less durable than the stoicism. During the Hellenistic period, the philosophical schools proposed true doctrines of life. The doctrines aimed to present ways of life that shortened the path between human beings and happiness.
Epicurus presented a theory that defines that human beings should seek pleasure. However, it lacked the simplicity of Cyrene's Aristippus theory, called Cyrenaic hedonism. Epicurean hedonism was complex and divided into types of pleasure: there were natural pleasures and unnatural pleasures. For Epicurus, human beings should seek natural pleasures, as they would be the only ones that would truly lead to happiness. You unnatural pleasures they are linked to what is beyond the person's control or often arise by social convention. They also are ephemeral, which can increase the potential for addiction.
We can cite as unnatural pleasures sex, the use of narcotics and the search for conventions that supposedly bring pleasure, like power, wealth and fame. Narcotics and sex offer pleasure, but must be managed with caution, as addiction is an enslavement that takes away a person's individual freedom. Wealth, fame and power depend on a series of factors that are outside the individual, that is, the individual does not control them. This can cause frustration when going off course.
The natural pleasures, those that really lead to happiness, should be sought without moderation. These pleasures are linked to the intellect and ennoble the spirit, making life supposedly fuller and happier. They they are not ephemeral, they are neither addictive nor disappointing., therefore, are the most recommended pleasures. The English utilitarians, mainly in the line developed by John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill, bet on the usefulness of this type of pleasure as a guide for the utilitarian ethical principle: ethical actions are those that cause greater pleasure to the greatest number of people and least harm to the smallest number.
We can conclude that Epicurean hedonism does not consist in an unbridled pursuit of pleasures, but in the domain of desire and moderation. Epicureanism differs from Cyrenaic hedonism in that it delimits the desirable pleasure specifically and for defending the control of impulses and desires.
Types of Hedonism
- Cyrenaic Hedonism: pure and simple form of the idea of hedonism defended by Aristippus of Cyrene.
- Epicurean Hedonism: as described in the last topic, it is a type that differentiates the pleasures to be pursued.
- Utilitarian Hedonism: it foresees as an ethical action that which follows a rational calculation, turning the result of the action into something that should bring the greatest pleasure to the greatest number of people possible.
- Psychological Hedonism: it is the idea that there is a link between pleasure and happiness, and happiness is the end of human life.
Image credit
[1] Miguel Hermoso Cuesta / commons
by Francisco Porfirio
Philosophy teacher
