Hedonistic Theories from Aristippus to Spencer.

Abstract

A series of essays on the hedonism of the Sophists, Aristippus, Epicurus, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Bentham, J.S. Mill and Spencer. The first part of each essay consists of a summary of the theory discussed while the second part is in each case a criticism of the theory from the standpoint of the ethics of self-realization. The author's general objection to hedonism, as stated in the Preface, is that it cannot plausibly explain morality without assuming ideas inconsistent with its asserted principle.