What Was Hedonist View About The Good Life?
What is the hedonist view about the good life? Assess one major problem it faces.
Hedonists believe that a good life is one that contains the greatest amount of happiness possible and goes well ‘to the extent that it is filled with pleasure and free of pain’. A problem that will be assessed is the idea of ‘false happiness’ where a person believes that they have led a good, happiness-filled life, unaware that this happiness is based upon false beliefs.
Hedonism begins with the premise that there are two types of value; instrumental where ‘things that are valuable because of the good things they bring about’ (pg.21) and intrinsic which can be defined as ‘something valuable in its own right, even if it brings nothing else in its wake’ (ibid). …show more content…
For hedonists, ‘happiness is happiness, regardless of its source’ (page 34 XXX). Since the woman has spent her entire life feeling content with her situation, the deception that has befallen her does not take away from the fact that she has experienced a great deal of happiness throughout her life and she has, by hedonist criteria, led a good life. Her life would be no less enviable than a woman who has not experienced the same trickery. For hedonists, happiness is the sole factor that determines how well a life goes and therefore the origin of that happiness carries no …show more content…
This is a fairly common view that is shared by many hedonists. However he fails to consider a scenario of two identical lives where there is no risk of unfamiliarity: one is lived in reality, and an indistinguishable life is dreamed of in the ‘experience machine’. Although both lives promote an equal quantity of happiness, it seems clear that the real life is more desirable than the one in the ‘experience machine’. It is unconceivable to imagine that a person would choose to live in a dream world rather than one grounded in reality. If we suppose that this is true, we must assume that ‘a pleasant life of illusion is less good for you than an equally pleasant life based on real achievement’ (XXX). This therefore refutes the hedonic claim that happiness is the sole contributor towards a good life; the happiness must also have grounds in reality for it to contribute towards a good
Hedonists believe that a good life is one that contains the greatest amount of happiness possible and goes well ‘to the extent that it is filled with pleasure and free of pain’. A problem that will be assessed is the idea of ‘false happiness’ where a person believes that they have led a good, happiness-filled life, unaware that this happiness is based upon false beliefs.
Hedonism begins with the premise that there are two types of value; instrumental where ‘things that are valuable because of the good things they bring about’ (pg.21) and intrinsic which can be defined as ‘something valuable in its own right, even if it brings nothing else in its wake’ (ibid). …show more content…
For hedonists, ‘happiness is happiness, regardless of its source’ (page 34 XXX). Since the woman has spent her entire life feeling content with her situation, the deception that has befallen her does not take away from the fact that she has experienced a great deal of happiness throughout her life and she has, by hedonist criteria, led a good life. Her life would be no less enviable than a woman who has not experienced the same trickery. For hedonists, happiness is the sole factor that determines how well a life goes and therefore the origin of that happiness carries no …show more content…
This is a fairly common view that is shared by many hedonists. However he fails to consider a scenario of two identical lives where there is no risk of unfamiliarity: one is lived in reality, and an indistinguishable life is dreamed of in the ‘experience machine’. Although both lives promote an equal quantity of happiness, it seems clear that the real life is more desirable than the one in the ‘experience machine’. It is unconceivable to imagine that a person would choose to live in a dream world rather than one grounded in reality. If we suppose that this is true, we must assume that ‘a pleasant life of illusion is less good for you than an equally pleasant life based on real achievement’ (XXX). This therefore refutes the hedonic claim that happiness is the sole contributor towards a good life; the happiness must also have grounds in reality for it to contribute towards a good