Hedonism

According to google, Hedonism means the pursuit of pleasure. However, that definition is too narrow compared to its philosophical interpretation. The basic idea of Hedonism is that our lives are dictated by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. There are a ton of variations called “hedonisms” that surround the basic idea of Hedonism. Philosophers have pointed out the flaws of earlier versions of Hedonism, coming up with new ideas even today. If you’ve ever heard of the phrase “You only live once”, that’s the principle for Normative hedonism, which argues that the purpose of life is to seek pleasure. The main flaw with Normative Hedonism is that it justifies the commonly discouraged behavior of seeking short-lived highs. The argument against Normative Hedonism could be seen as a slippery slope argument, but most of us know not to focus only on pleasure, the world doesn’t work that way. A counter against Normative Hedonism is Egotistical Hedonism, which is very similar to Normative Hedonism except that it argues specifically and directly that you yourself should do only that which benefits yourself (by increasing your own pleasure, etc.). If hedonism sounds selfish already, there’s another variation called altruistic hedonism. The main difference between hedonism and utilitarianism is that hedonism focuses on yourself, the “me” and the “I”. There is a very big flaw in hedonistic theories though, frequently dubbed as the Hedonic treadmill. It’s the theory that people have a tendency to return to a neutral state of happiness and thus chasing pleasure could get exhausting - similar to a hamster wheel, for example, where one forever keeps on chasing pleasure or validation. While very view individuals would wish to directly label themselves as hedonists, the core concept of it - of pleasure as the highest good - is pervasive in ethical theories and everyday reasoning.