Hedonism
The noun 'hedonism' - pronounced HEE-do-nizm IPA: /ˈhiː dən ˌɪzəm/ or HEAD-o-nizm IPA: /ˈhɛ dən ˌɪzəm/ - comes from the Greek noun ἡδονή (hēdonē, 'pleasure' or 'enjoyment'), and is used in a number of different ways.
In everyday speech the word 'hedonism' means: the pursuit of sensual pleasures, i.e., pleasures involving the senses of taste or touch such as the pleasures of food, drink, and sex. A person whose life is devoted to, or dominated by, these pleasures may be said to be a hedonist or to have a hedonistic lifestyle. Used in this way, the word 'hedonism' often has a derogatory force: it conveys the speaker's dislike or disapproval of a lifestyle in which pursuit of the pleasures of food, drink, and sex is dominant.
In other contexts, e.g., within the disciplines of philosophy and psychology, the word 'hedonism' is used differently, and without any derogatory force, to refer to any of a range of theories about the place which pleasure does, or should, occupy in human life. Pleasure, in these theories, is understood in the broadest possible sense to cover not simply sensual pleasure but pleasure in any activity or experience whatsoever. These theories may be divided into two broad types.
The first type holds that all human actions are motivated by (the desire for) pleasure (and/or the desire to avoid pain). This view does not make the absurd claim that everything we do we find, or expect to find, pleasurable, but insists that what we do but do not expect to find pleasurable in itself (e.g., going to the dentist, sitting an examination, paying a bill) is undertaken in the expectation or hope that its consequences will be pleasurable or involve the relief or avoidance of pain. This type of theory, which is usually known as psychological hedonism, may be elaborated in a number of ways, e.g. it may be held that it is only rational, or fully intentional, human actions that are motivated by pleasure.
By contrast with psychological hedonism, which makes a factual claim about human motivation, the second type of theory, usually known as ethical hedonism, holds that pleasure is the only intrinsic good and pain the only intrinsic evil; that other things are valuable only insofar as they lead to an increase in pleasure or a decrease in pain; and hence that what human beings ought to do is always to seek to increase or maximise pleasure and/or to reduce or eliminate pain. Ethical hedonism, as its name implies, thus makes an ethical or moral, rather than a factual, claim. Again, different forms of this theory may be distinguished: some forms hold that each person should seek to increase or maximise his or her own pleasure (egoistic ethical hedonism), while other forms hold that each person should seek to increase or maximise others' pleasure as well as his or her own (altruistic ethical hedonism). In the Ancient World ethical hedonism was endorsed by the Cyrenaic and Epicurean schools of philosophy, while in more recent times some forms of utilitarianism are clearly forms of altruistic ethical hedonism.
There are two adjectives related to 'hedonism': 'hedonistic' (pronounced with the stress on the third syllableIPA: /hiː dən ˈɪst ɪk/) and 'hedonic' (pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, IPA: /hiː ˈdɒn ɪk/). Of these 'hedonistic' is by far the more common. 'Hedonic' is used only in scientific or quasi-scientific contexts - as in the phrase 'the hedonic calculus', i.e., the method devised by the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) for calculating the amount of pleasure likely to be produced by an action (see, Jeremy Bentham, Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, ch. IV). The hedonic calculus is also known as the felicific calculus.
Hedonics - the word is plural in form, but is treated as a singular - is sometimes used as the name for the branch of psychology which is concerned with the study of pleasant and unpleasant sensations.
