1. Hedonism Pleasure’s Role in Human Life

2. Two Versions Descriptive We are motivated only to pursue pleasure and avoid pain This is a psychological claim – a claim about motivation Normative/Evaluative The only thing worth pursuing is pleasure; and the thing worth avoiding is pain. Axiological: The study of value

3. Psychological Egoism When you do things for others, you do it because it makes *you* feel good, or because you want a good reputation, or something ultimately grounded in your own pleasure. Ego: The self Descriptive: Individuals are motivated to pursue only their own pleasure and avoid their own pain.

4. Arguments for Psychological Hedonism We do seek to maximize what we take to be our own good. Our own ‘good’ is meaningless if ‘good’ does not refer to pleasure, broadly construed. Thus, we do seek to maximize our own pleasure.

5. Objections

6. Phenomenological It does not feel that I pursue pleasure and avoid pain. I often do not try to do these things Psychological How do you know people’s motivations better than they do? Do people who endorse PE only do it because it makes them feel good?

7. Account Argument Every human action can be accounted for by referring to some kind of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Psychological Hedonism predicts people will act to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. Psychological Hedonism is thus accurate.

8. Objection If there are no conditions under which a theory is refutable, it is an empty theory. (Popper) Psychological Hedonism can reinterpret every action to fit its own theory. Thus, there are no conditions under which PH is refutable. So, PH is empty.

9. Broader Concerns What does psychological hedonism mean? Does it mean we can never act not to pursue someone’s pleasure? Or, does it just mean we generally pursue pleasure but sometimes do not? Does psychological hedonism mean that we try, over time, to maximize our own pleasure? Or does it mean that at each moment we try to do so? Those are not the same. The latter is compatible with foregoing pleasure in the name of pleasure later, while the former is not.

10. What about Knowledge? The pursuit of theoretical knowledge is long, painful, and often does not yield knowledge. Why do people continue to pursue it, if pleasure is all they can seek? Think of Socrates: the unexamined life is not worth living; nothing is good but thinking about the nature of virtue; but Socrates had no idea what virtue was up to the day he died.