The Pursuit of Hedonism or Pleasure as absence of suffering

[willowgypsy]

I have been doing some thinking and reading about hedonism; hedonism, the theory (I am sure we can *all* get behind that!), and hedonism, the reality (boo hiss reality

Comments

[strangedave]

I've been thinking about hedonism (in the philosophical sense) quite a bit lately. A big distinction to me is the simple idea that something can be morally justified if all it does is make people happy - and that if it is your own pleasure, it is reasonable to expend effort and take risks if it makes you happy. That doesn't seem particularly revolutionary, and I think most people would agree with it, until you think about how many of the moral positions people take (especially religious views on sex, or drug prohibition, etc) are purely opposed to it