Ethical Hedonism Research Articles

Cārvāka Philosophy and the Pursuit of Pleasure: A Hedonistic Perspective

This paper explores the intersection between Cārvāka Philosophy and hedonism, focusing on how both systems of thought emphasize the pursuit of pleasure as a central aspect of human life. Charvaka, an ancient Indian materialist school, advocates for a pragmatic approach to life that prioritizes happiness, pleasure, and the minimization of pain. In contrast, Western hedonism, while similar in its pursuit of pleasure, offers a broader range of interpretations, from ethical hedonism to utilitarianism. By examining Charvaka’s views on happiness and pleasure, and comparing them with Western hedonistic thought, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how these philosophies approach the fundamental questions of life’s purpose and ethical living. The discussion delves into the implications of adopting a hedonistic lifestyle in the context of both philosophies, considering the potential benefits and challenges. Keyword – Cārvāka Philosophy, Pursuit of Pleasure, Hedonistic

Reflection of Ethical Hedonism in Consumption on Packaging Design: The Example of Tony's Chocolonely

Tüketim kültürü, sosyo-ekonomik koşulların yarattığı, sürdürdüğü, dönüştürdüğü ve şekillendirdiği, deneyim ve anlam içeren tüketim ekosistemini anlatmaktadır. Hedonizm, kişinin mutluluğunu, zevkini ve keyfiliğini maksimize etmesi olarak ifade edilmektedir. Etik hedonizm ise, kimliklerini tüketim üzerinden inşa eden tüketicilerin, etik ilkeleri ve hazzı birlikte yakaladıkları önemli bir buluşma noktası olarak yorumlanabilir. Bu buluşma noktasında ambalaj tasarımı sadece görsel etki alanı değil, iletişimin de gerçekleştiği yer olmaktadır. Görsel iletişim araçları, reklamlar, televizyon programları, filmler ve sosyal medya gibi mecralar hazcılığı etkileyecek temalar kullanarak insanları ürün ve hizmet satın almaya teşvik etmeye çalışmaktadır. Tüm bu aktarılanların doğrultusunda çalışmanın amacını, etik üretim ve sosyal sorumluluk taahhüdüne odaklanan Tony's Chocolonely çikolata markasının barındırdığı sembolizmi ve etik söylemi analiz etmek oluşturmaktadır. Çalışma, göstergebilimsel analiz kapsamında markanın görsel ve dilsel unsurlarını inceleyerek, zevk, aktivizm ve tüketim ile sorumluluğun uyumlu bir şekilde bir arada var olduğu mesajlarını iletme stratejilerini ortaya çıkarmaktadır. Ayrıca, markaların tüketicileri etik, eşitlik ve sorumlu tüketim hakkında derin bir söylemle meşgul etmek için yüzeysel estetiği nasıl aştığı konusunda kapsamlı bir anlayış sunmaya çalışmaktadır.

MORAL DETERIORATION OF ENGLISH SOCIETY IN VICTORIAN ERA AS SEEN IN OSCAR WILDE’S THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

Abstract
 This research aims to analyze the moral deterioration of English society in the Victorian Era in the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.Specifically, this research analyzes the reason for the moral deterioration of English society in the Victorian era and how moral deterioration affects British society. This study uses the theological theory by Ted Peter to analyze the selling soul to demons as the reason for moral deterioration, and the theory of Farhansyah to analyze hedonism as the effect of moral deterioration for British society in the Victorian era. This research finally underlined two major problems as the findings related to cause and effect in moral deterioration as seen on The Picture of Dorian Gray. The cause is selling souls to the demons. The effect of moral deterioration is hedonism. Related to hedonism, the writer only found two kinds of problems; ethical hedonism and aesthetic hedonism.

Ethical Hedonism in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s the Great Gatsby

This aims of this study reflect about etchical hedonism in Jay Gatsby as main character
 in the novel which take place in New York 1920’s after First War.The researcher uses
 William Lillie’s ethical hedonism theory. Ethical hedonism is the way of thinking to
 achieve happiness in the middle of troublesome modern world. The purpose of ethical
 hedonism teory is to make everyone as happy as possible. The data are used in this
 novel are quotation between the characters. The ethical hedonism theory consists of
 egoistic hedonism and universalistic hedonism. The source of the data is the novel The
 Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This research is library research, with the
 data in the form of words, dialogues, and expression showed in the novel. The writer
 uses qualitative descriptive method, the writer collects data from so many sources
 included The Great Gatsby novel, journals, and books. The results of this study show
 that there are some impact that influenced by ethical hedonism, they are: (1) egoistic
 hedonism (2) universalistic hedonism (3) lifestyle (4) materialism, its reflected by the
 character quotation.

Nietzsche on Art and Life

Nietzsche on Art and Life

Making Sense of Epicurean Friendship

This paper argues that Epicurean friendship is instrumental in value, and Epicurus’s varied claims about friendship can be understood as teaching strategies that are tailored to different levels of students. After rejecting an argument that presents Epicurean friendship as intrinsic, I outline Epicurus’s methodology of teaching and examine his specific claims regarding friendship as intended for either novice, intermediate, or advanced students. This approach allows Epicurus’s weaker and stronger claims regarding friendship to be viewed as gradually progressing students towards the good life without deviating from the ethical hedonism that frames his entire philosophical project.

MANAJEMEN LABA (EARNING MANAGEMENT) DALAM PERSPEKTIF ETIKA HEDONISME

Earnings management occurs as a direct consequence of the efforts of managers or preparers of financial statements for management accounting information, especially earnings for the sake of personal interests or companies. That earnings management can not be interpreted as a negative action since it does not profit-oriented management of earnings manipulation. Positive accounting theory suggests that managers have an incentive or encouragement to be able to maximize their welfare. In this paper the behavior of managers in the conduct of earnings management will be reviewed from the standpoint of ethical hedonism. Used in the sense of ethical values and moral norms which become the handle for one person or a group to regulate behavior hedonism Ethics plays an important role of earnings management. Because hedonism starting from the assumption that human beings should live in such a way that it can be more happy. Efforts to gain reward management priorities, reward obtained by showing a stable performance from several periods. Earning management one way to show achievement. By looking at two perspectives of psychological hedonism and ethical hedonism, it can be drawn a conclusion that earning management is a reasonable action to meet the man himself hedonism.Keywords: Earnings Management, Positive Accounting Theory, Ethical Hedonism

Does Pleasure Have Intrinsic Value?

Ethical hedonists hold that pleasure and avoidance of pain are the sole bearers of intrinsic value. At times, ethical hedonism has been the dominant view in moral philosophy and continues to retain a strong following today. Opponents of ethical hedonism have tended to base their case, inter alia, on establishing that pleasure is not the only thing of intrinsic value. Matthew Pianalto goes a step further by claiming that pleasure does not have intrinsic value at all, only extrinsic, instrumental value.

Millian Qualitative Superiorities and Utilitarianism, Part I

Arrhenius and Rabinowicz (henceforth, AR) have argued that Millian qualitative superiorities are possible without assuming that any pleasure, or type of pleasure, is infinitely superior to another. But AR's analysis is fatally flawed in the context of ethical hedonism, where the assumption in question is necessary and sufficient for Millian qualitative superiorities. Marginalist analysis of the sort pressed by AR continues to have a valid role to play within any plausible version of hedonism, provided the fundamental incoherence that infects AR's use of such analysis is removed. But what AR call ‘Millian superiorities’ are never genuine qualitative superiorities in Mill's sense. Mill scholars need to appreciate this point and recognize that the interpretation of qualitative superiorities as infinite superiorities is the only interpretation which is compatible with the text of Mill's Utilitarianism. The continuing failure to appreciate the possibility of infinite superiorities has precluded any adequate understanding of the extraordinary structure of Mill's pluralistic hedonistic utilitarianism.

Too much of a good thing? Another paradox of hedonism

1. Ethical hedonism comes in many guises: psychological and normative, individual and universal. Psychological hedonists hold that all agents inevitably act for the sake of their individual greater pleasure; by contrast, normative hedonists take pleasure to be the good in the sense that agents have reason to maximize pleasure, either their own or that of all creatures capable of pleasurable experiences in general. All these kinds of hedonism are united by the thesis, variously interpreted, that pleasure is the good. Hedonism is not, and never has been, uncontroversial. One prominent reason against it focuses on its commitment to reducing an apparent range of practical human values to just a single one: pleasure. This is at best inappropriate; to quote Butler's memorable phrase, hedonism fails to reflect 'the language of mankind'. At worst it strikes us as morally repulsive. Moreover, there is a prominent argument against more direct forms of normative hedonism, turning on the well-known paradox that pleasure seeking is bound to be impractical and even self-defeating: constant attempts to maximize pleasure tend to frustrate agents rather than delight them.

Mill's Proof

This paper constitutes a suggested route through the well-trodden minefield that is Mill's proof of Utilitarianism. A deductive course—tramping gamely straight across from an egoistic psychological hedonism to a disinterested ethical hedonism—would seemingly be the most hazardous route across the terrain. Thus, it has become standard policy amongst guides to advise readers of Utilitarianism that this is a route which Mill neither needs nor attempts to take. I shall argue that in travelling down this route one can avoid the dangers with which it is usually associated and I shall tentatively suggest that one may find oneself following Mill's footsteps in doing so.

Gender and Power

Philosophical feminism is the only coherent philosophy with universal implications that provides a theoretical alternative to patriarchal thought and sociopolitical structures. I distinguish between a patriarchal logic of power and a feminist logic of pleasure that leads to an enlightened ethical hedonism, a pleasure-centered, feminist ethical framework based on a cooperative rather than authoritarian model of social relations.

Mill's Higher Pleasures and the Choice of Character

J. S. Mill's distinction between higher and lower pleasures is often thought to conflict with his commitment to psychological and ethical hedonism: if the superiority of higher pleasures is quantitative, then the higher/lower distinction is superfluous and Mill contradicts himself; if the superiority of higher pleasures is not quantitative, then Mill's hedonism is compromised.

Levy, "David Baumgardt and Ethical Hedonism"

Levy, "David Baumgardt and Ethical Hedonism"

David Baumgardt and ethical hedonism

David Baumgardt and ethical hedonism

Mill's Conception of Happiness as an Inclusive End

Mill's Conception of Happiness as an Inclusive End ROBERT W. HOAG FOR A LONGTIMEJohn Stuart Mill's utilitarianism has been regarded as an implausible, inconsistent ethical hedonism. For example, since the publication of Utilitarianism many critics have charged that the doctrine of qualities of pleasures is inconsistent with Mill's fundamental commitment to ethical hedonism.' Some have also argued that Mill's claims about the intrinsic value of virtue contradict his view of pleasure as the sole intrinsic good.~ And Mill's defense of liberty has often been discounted as a utilitarian argument because it is said to rely on non-hedonistic values such as individuality.3 But these and other traditional objections presuppose that Mill advances a simple, hedonistic theory of value. It is that presupposition that I intend to challenge in this paper. A few commentators have recently begun to challenge the standard interOriginal versions of this paper were completed while participating in a NEH Summer Seminar at the Universityof Arizona, June t8-August lo, 1984. I am thankful for the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities. And for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this work, I thank Fred Berger, Joel Feinberg,John Simmons, Alan Fuchs, and Joan Callahan. ' J. B. Schneewind, "Concerning Some Criticisms of Mill's Utilitarianism," in James and John Stuart Mill/Papers of the Centenary Conference, ed. John M. Robson and Michael Laine (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976), 46-48. Notable proponents of this objection include: Henry Sidgwick, The Method.~ of Ethics, 7th ed. (London: MacMillan, 19o7), 94-95; F. H. Bradley, Ethical Studies, ~d ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1926), 117-2o; T. H. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, ed. A. C. Bradley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1888), w167 G. E. Moore, Principia Ethica (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 19o3), 77-81; John Plamenatz , The English Utilitarians (Oxford: Basic Blackwell, 1949), 141-42; R. P. Anschutz, The Philosophy ofJ. s. Mill (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953), xS-19. ' For example: Green, w167 H. J. McCloskey,John Stuart Mill: A Critical Study (New York: Macmillan, x971), 62, 7a. 3 Notable proponents of this objection include: James Fitzjames Stephen, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (London, 1873), 48-51; Plamenatz, 126-33; Anschutz, 5-1o; C. L. Ten, Mill on Liberty (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 198o). [417] 418 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 25:3 JULY 1987 pretation of Mill's theory of value. 4 I here develop this work by arguing that Mill conceives of happiness as a higher-order, inclusive end of life, and by using this interpretive approach to explain some of Mill's puzzling remarks about happiness, parts of happiness, and pleasures. In the first section of this paper I briefly consider Mill's account of Art or Practice in order to reveal the status and function Mill assigns his conception of happiness. In the second section I argue that his account of Art strongly suggests Mill employs an inclusive conception of happiness and that this structural feature of his conception explains some puzzling remarks in both Utilitarianism and On Liberty. The following section considers some objections to my interpretation , including difficulties raised by a prominent passage where Mill appears to define happiness simply as "pleasure and the absence of pain" (U,II,~). 5 I conclude by briefly considering some implications of my view of Mill's conception of happiness as an inclusive end. 1. In the final chapter of A System of Logic Mill sketches an account of the logic of Practice or Art. The discussion begins with the distinction between Art and Science: propositions of science are said to be expressed in the indicative mood and to assert matters of fact, while, according to Mill, propositions of Art are expressed in the imperative mood (or in equivalent paraphrases) as rules or precepts and do not assert matters of fact (SL,VI,xii,w Although Mill does not consistently adhere to these criteria,6 the import of the distinction is clear: all types of normative or evaluative propositions belong to the realm of Art, as opposed to Science. 7 Mill's discussion of Practice or Art deals with the logic of the class of all value claims. Although Mill maintains...

Christian Spontaneity and the Clarification of Pleasure

Christians are not the only people with reservations about ethical hedonism. But the leading of a Christian life—along the broad lines traced out in the New Testament, say—has often seemed to be particularly disprobative of the theory that the moral end consists in pleasure. And it is not just a theoretical matter: among Christians, pleasure has been ignored, suspected, feared; and only sometimes welcomed. What I shall try to do in this article is examine what substance there is behind this hesitancy, and what significance pleasure should still have in the Christian life. To do this successfully we shall have to clarify the concept of pleasure. This is a task that needs to be done as much for the sake of our moral philosophy as for the sake of our Christianity, and the way in which I shall proceed will be to develop the meaning and the importance of pleasure in close connection with another (and perhaps slightly less controversial) feature of the Christian life: spontaneity. I can anticipate the general drift of the paper here by saying that pleasure, roughly speaking, is felt spontaneity. This has important implications, as does the fact that, for all their doubts about hedonism, Christians have traditionally made use of a number of words not unrelated to ‘pleasure’: words like ‘joy’, ‘contentment’, ‘blessedness’ and ‘happiness’.

In Defense of Ethical Hedonism

In Defense of Ethical Hedonism