Do you believe in psychological hedonism/egoism? Any philosophers on this?

We are now requiring that new registrants confirm their request for an account by email.  Once you complete the "Sign Up" process to set up your user name and password, please send an email to the New Accounts Administator to obtain new account approval.

Regularly Checking In On A Small Screen Device? Bookmark THIS page!
    • New

    I'm become more interested in psychological hedonism (the thesis that all human actions are due to avoiding pain and increasing pleasure) and curious your guys thoughts on it.

    I think i generally believe in it. There are some seemingly strong counter examples like a doctor staying by a sick child all night and a mother sacrificing for their child but even then i think that is done for the "pleasure" of feeling you are "doing the right, helping others, feeling virtuous, and being free of guilt" and the pains associated with this like when a mother loses a child is just the pain of grief and guilt overwhelming them like how when a thief can't cope with the anxiety of getting caught.

    Do you all agree? Curious to find some philosophers on this but the wiki page mostly states people who disagree with this.

    • New

    You'll find that most here agree with you, and that Emily Austin agrees and talks about this in chapter 4 of her book "Living for Pleasure" under the title "Natural Hedonism.

    Quote from wbernys

    I'm become more interested in psychological hedonism (the thesis that all human actions are due to avoiding pain and increasing pleasure) and curious your guys thoughts on it.

    Mark Twain makes the same argument in his "What Is Man" as well.

    Epicurus has a very expansive view of pleasure that goes far beyond just physical stimulation, and yes that definitely plays into the idea that everyone acts for what they perceive to be their best interests.

    My own view of employing the psychological hedonism argument in this context is that while there is a lot of merit depending on how it is presented (as Twain does), I don't find it particularly useful on the deeper and more important point of decided what the word "pleasure' really should be held to mean. it's one thing to say that every in truth acts for what they think will bring them the best result, but how that result correlates to "pleasure" is really the issue, and saying that "everyone does it" doesn't really help with that, at least from my point of view. All the other lemmings may be jumping off the cliff, but observing that everyone is doing it doesn't really help me decide that I should follow that path myself.

    • New

    Thanks Cassius Just ordered Emily Austin's book. Read the sample and looks excellent! Off topic but do you know if she discusses free will in that book?

    Yeah i agree that the debate is kind of pointless since the term "pleasure" would have to be so vague to allow for it even though i think it's true and most people think of "pleasure" as only bodily pleasure so it becomes a sophistry word debate, which i hate and i think Epicurus would too.

    • New

    At first thought I think that Dr. Austin touches on the subject (maybe repeatedly) but I don't think there is a chapter devoted to it.

    For that I would recommend the DeWitt book, which treats it extensively, but equally or more so I would recommend the article "Epicurus' Refutation of Determinism" by Dr. David Sedley. i think we have it here or it's readily available on Academia -- if you can't find it let us know!

Unread Threads

    1. Title
    2. Replies
    3. Last Reply

    2. New Youtube Video - "Epicurus Responding to His Haters" - October 2025 4

      • Cassius
      • October 17, 2025 at 10:39 AM
    3. Replies
      4
      Views
      815
      4

    4. Cassius

      October 17, 2025 at 10:39 AM

    2. Preparing A Public Domain Audio And Text Version Lucretius In Modern American English 4

      • Cassius
      • October 16, 2025 at 3:24 PM
    3. Replies
      4
      Views
      173
      4

    4. Cassius

      October 16, 2025 at 3:24 PM

    2. Anti-Natalism: The Opposite of Epicureanism 9

      • Don
      • October 9, 2025 at 5:12 AM
    3. Replies
      9
      Views
      7k
      9

    4. Adrastus

      October 9, 2025 at 5:12 AM

Finding Things At EpicureanFriends.com

What's the best strategy for finding things on EpicureanFriends.com? Here's a suggested search strategy:

  • First, familiarize yourself with the list of forums. The best way to find threads related to a particular topic is to look in the relevant forum. Over the years most people have tried to start threads according to forum topic, and we regularly move threads from our "general discussion" area over to forums with more descriptive titles.
  • Use the "Search" facility at the top right of every page. Note that the search box asks you what section of the forum you'd like to search. If you don't know, select "Everywhere." Also check the "Search Assistance" page.
  • Use the "Tag" facility, starting with the "Key Tags By Topic" in the right hand navigation pane, or using the "Search By Tag" page, or the "Tag Overview" page which contains a list of all tags alphabetically. We curate the available tags to keep them to a manageable number that is descriptive of frequently-searched topics.