Overview and Types of Pleasure
- Pleasure refers to the enjoyment of something that feels good.
- It includes sensory pleasures like food and sex, as well as other positive experiences.
- Pleasure can be derived from basic biological drives like eating and sex.
- Cultural activities such as art, music, and literature can also be pleasurable.
- Pleasure can be classified as fundamental (related to survival) or higher-order (e.g., appreciation of art).
- Pleasure can encompass a wide range of feelings and experiences.
- Bentham listed 14 kinds of pleasure, including sense, wealth, and memory.
Theories of Pleasure
- Theories of pleasure aim to identify common elements in pleasurable experiences.
- Quality theories view pleasure as a sensation or aspect of mental phenomena.
- Attitude theories analyze pleasure in terms of the subject's attitude towards an experience.
- Dispositional theories combine insights from quality theories and attitude theories.
- Some quality theories consider pleasure as a sensation.
- Others propose that pleasure is an aspect qualifying mental phenomena.
- Attitude theories analyze pleasure in terms of the subject's attitude towards an experience.
- Dispositional theories are often grouped under the label hedonism.
Pleasure in Ethics and Value
- Pleasure is related to how we should act, which falls under the field of ethics.
- Ethical hedonism states that increasing pleasure and decreasing pain determine what is right.
- Egoist version of ethical hedonism focuses on maximizing one's own pleasure.
- Utilitarianism is an altruist theory that aims to maximize the sum-total of everyone's happiness.
- Pleasure is a factor in utilitarianism, but not the only one.
- Pleasure is connected to value, which is what is desirable and worth seeking.
- Axiological hedonism states that pleasure is the only thing with intrinsic value.
- Things other than pleasure have instrumental value, meaning they are valuable because they produce pleasure.
- Quantitative hedonism holds that the value of pleasure depends on its intensity and duration.
- Qualitative hedonism argues that the quality of pleasure is also relevant to its value.
Pleasure in Beauty and Aesthetics
- Beauty is often associated with pleasure.
- Aesthetic hedonism claims there is a necessary connection between pleasure and beauty.
- Pleasure from beauty can be mixed, including both pleasant and unpleasant elements.
- Aesthetic disinterested pleasure is valued for its own sake, regardless of the existence of the beautiful object.
- There are cases of beauty without pleasure, challenging aesthetic hedonism.
Pleasure in Psychology and Neuroscience
- Pleasure and suffering are often seen as mutually exclusive.
- Some research suggests that people can experience mixed feelings of pleasure and suffering.
- Pleasure is a core dimension of emotion, forming the basis for evaluations like agreeable or nice.
- Anhedonia is the clinical condition of being unable to experience pleasure from enjoyable activities.
- Pleasure-seeking behavior is common and often dominates our conduct.
- Psychological hedonism suggests that all our actions aim to increase pleasure and avoid pain.
- The paradox of hedonism states that seeking pleasure can lead to less actual pleasure.
- The brain has specific regions and circuits that are involved in the experience of pleasure.
- The nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum are considered 'hedonic hotspots' that generate pleasurable sensations.
- The orbitofrontal cortex and insula cortex also contribute to the experience of pleasure.
Pleasure Mentions
https://alternix.com/blogs/news/quitting-smoking-can-nicotine-pouches-help-you-kick-the-habitPleasure Data Sources
Reference | URL |
---|---|
Glossary | https://www.alternix.com/blogs/glossary-of-terms/pleasure |
Wikipedia | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasure |
Wikidata | https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q208195 |
Knowledge Graph | https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/m/016pnd |