What is Hedonism? (with pictures) – wiseGEEK

anon337051 Post 6

GiraffeEars is saying that the article's definition of hedonism is self-defeating. Completely avoiding pain decreases existing pleasures and prevents people from discovering new ones.

That makes sense, but a more practical definition of hedonism would be maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. In other words figuring out how to get the most pleasure with the least necessary pain. That's how I try to live my life and when I'm successful I feel very happy. I don't get bored with pleasure.

You can experience high levels of pleasure with little risk and no deterioration if you're careful. But it takes time, money, and knowledge to do it right.

While we all enjoy pleasure in life, we have to realize that this philosophy is incredibly inconsistent. If you seek pleasure your entire life, you're going to come to what some have called the "hedonistic paradox." That is, if the hedonist fails to achieve the measure of pleasure that he seeks, he experiences frustration, which is painful. The more we seek pleasure and fail to achieve it, the more we bring pain into our lives.

On the other hand, if we achieve all of the pleasure that we want, we will become bored. Either way, we will never, never be satisfied.

There is also a cost to unrestrained pleasure seeking. For instance, if you overdose on drugs, you could find

A hedonistic slogan that we often hear in our modern society is, "if it feels good, then it must be right." However, we would all agree that if a serial killer gets sadistic pleasure out of torturing his victims, and this would be wrong. Just because it feels good to the killer does not mean that it is right. Also, if someone, a firefighter or police officer for instance, gives up his life in an act of self-sacrifice in order to save the life of another, I think that we would all agree that he did the right thing, even though it brought about a great deal of pain. Similarly, we honor soldiers who gave their lives in battle although they suffered a tremendous amount of pain.

I have to disagree with GiraffeEars. Too much pain, in other words, suffering or stress. is detrimental for the psyche and well-being for an individual. Also in your last paragraph, you mentioned that you seek risk taking, and this is another aspect of hedonistic tendency called adrenaline rush. In other words, your brain is conditioned to seek pleasure from pain which is purely sadistic.

@ GiraffeEars- I have never thought about hedonism beyond the resorts in Jamaica, but after reading this article and your post, I thought about the philosophy myself. I would have to agree with you on this one. I agree for a totally different reason though. I think that constantly seeking pleasurable things would make someone more of a risk taker. A purely hedonistic way of life could lead to dangerous situations as things that were once pleasurable become dull and thing that are taboo become pleasurable.

All I can think of when I analyze this philosophy is the movie Hostel. I think that a hedonistic lifestyle, especially amongst the mega rich who have accomplished everything, can definitely lead to urges that fall outside of societal norms. Just my thoughts. I would be curious to hear anyone else's opinions r ideas on philosophy.

I am no philosopher; in fact, I barely know anything about philosophy, but according to the article's definition of hedonism I have to disagree with the philosophy. I believe that you have to experience all of the painful moments of life to truly live. Those who only seek out the pleasurable moments in life are unwilling to take risks, so in my thinking; they are not truly enjoying their life. Additionally, I believe that only positive experiences would become dull after a while. You would have little to compare these experiences too, so you would tire of the monotony of life (or at least I would).

Maybe I am just a risk taker, or maybe the fact that I am

an Aries makes me a look for excitement, but the hard work and pain that it takes to achieve something makes it that much more pleasurable to me. I enjoy pleasurable things, but I also enjoy the path to those things just as much.

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