What kind of person is a hedonist? The concept of hedonism and the way of thinking of hedonists The principle of hedonism relates to philosophy

installation on pleasure as the highest good and criterion of human behavior, reducing to it all the variety of moral requirements. For hedonism, the feeling of pleasure is considered a guiding star in the labyrinth of human moral experiences.

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HEDONISM

from Greek hedone - pleasure), ethical. doctrine, as well as a belief system and way of life, which considers pleasure to be the highest. the good and criterion of human behavior and reducing all the variety of moral requirements to it. The desire for pleasure in G. was considered as the main thing. the driving principle of a person, inherent in him by nature and predetermining all his actions. As a normative principle, G. is the opposite of asceticism. Originated in Dr. Greece in the teachings of Aristippus (4th century BC), who believed that everything that gives a person pleasure is good. His followers believed that any pleasure and action leading to it are justified. max. Epicurus (3rd century BC) is known for his justification, who taught that only natural and necessary pleasures are worthy, since they do not destroy internal. equanimity of the soul. During the Renaissance, G.'s ideas developed in the spirit of humanism. ethics and affirmed the value of man in all his life manifestations (for example, in the novel by F. Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel”). For the enlighteners of the 18th century. G. was one of the means of combating religious-dogmaticism. worldview. Subsequently, G. found the most. full expression in utilitarianism.

T. basic on a person's desire to receive pleasure. As a holistic attitude to the world, G. can accept various. forms and content. Hedonistic the worldview is based on the assertion that pleasure is an indispensable prerequisite for morality, since one cannot demand virtue from a suffering person whose desires are not satisfied; happiness lies in the ease and serenity of existence, etc. Accepting pleasure as the highest. goals are usually associated with the denial of regulatory societies. norms that prevent you from obtaining maximum pleasure. Hedo-nik seeks to obtain pleasure at any cost, which inevitably leads to unbridledness. At the same time, the person’s perception of the world around him changes: a person realizes himself only through pleasure, and the object of pleasure itself turns into an object of quenching passion. In its extreme manifestation, passion can be quenched through the suffering of another person, therefore one of the extreme incarnations of passion is sadism.

Hedonistic a person’s character can be revealed in a thirst for power, in rudeness (pleasure here comes from the consciousness of one’s own exclusivity and the opportunity to humiliate another person with impunity). At the same time, the desire for pleasure can be sublime and satisfied in refined communication and creativity. Appeal to G. may mean disagreement, a person’s protest against those social structures in which he found himself included against his will. However, as a rule, such a challenge to society results in quietism, a cowardly departure from reality.

To a large extent, G. is characteristic of adolescence and youth, Ch. arr. due to the social status of young people, most of whom are not yet burdened with a family. In addition, in young people, due to their age, psychol. features, the desire for pleasure to a lesser extent than in adults comes into conflict with reality, which significantly limits it. Long-lasting Hedonistic. worldview may indicate infantilism of the individual, selfish. self-concentration. G. is often provoked by the social structure of society, which does not allow the development of citizenship. activity of young people or not providing them with opportunities to meet their needs, including in the field of leisure.

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Hello, dear readers of the blog site. The modern world is an incredible abundance of pleasant things and entertainment. In such conditions it is difficult to rely on and remain an ascetic.

But the elevation of pleasure to its apogee was practiced long before the advent of expensive cars, dishes from all over the world in one restaurant and things for every taste. Is it possible that hedonism is a natural state for humanity that has always been in our nature? Or not? Let's figure it out.

Excursion into history

Aristippus is an ancient Greek philosopher and father such a doctrine as hedonism. In his concept, he believed that there are only two states for a person, which are diametrically opposed in nature. This is pleasure and pain.

What kind of pleasure it is and how it is achieved does not matter. Because it still brings a high level of pleasure, in which there is no place for suffering. Meaning of life Aristippus interpreted it exactly as physical pleasure.

Hedonism in the modern world

Due to the pace of modern life, a person bears a lot of responsibilities and routine tasks that he must perform to survive in society. A large information flow tires us, and this makes us chronically dissatisfied.

Therefore, more and more people are joining the trend of hedonism, to enjoy now. And not to work from early morning until late evening, so that somewhere later you can buy an apartment for your old age.

An abundance of pleasant things and a variety of entertainment allows you to achieve pleasure right now. Hedonists strive to acquire the best things, because they often believe that this is what can bring happiness. For example, expensive alcoholic drinks, a leather sofa.

Society began to distinguish healthy and unhealthy hedonism. The first includes satisfying one’s desires without harming other people and the environment. The second one has the opposite position. When a person, in order to obtain pleasure, is ready to disregard the feelings of others or morality, laws.

Examples of excessive hedonism

There are many examples in history when hedonism went beyond acceptable limits and left a negative imprint on society:

1. During the gold rush in California, people rushed to look for the precious metal in order to get rich quickly. They left their homes and lived in special camps. Opium was brought there, and people, wanting to get at least illusory pleasure, became drug addicts and could no longer get anything.
2. After the revolution in France, hashish was a common way to achieve pleasure. Almost all highly intelligent people of that time exchanged their high ideals for pleasures of this dubious kind.
3. During Prohibition, another form of pleasure was banned – alcohol. However, in underground clubs it was poured out to everyone willing and able to pay. Even those who had no addiction to alcohol before now wanted to get what was banned throughout America (forbidden pleasure).
4. The hippie era. They took psychedelic substances and also advocated, including sexual intercourse. They found happiness in freedom and baubles in their arms. As a result, their subculture was lost among hundreds of others.

If you listen to your desires and while striving for self-development, and not to get pleasure at the expense of others, then hedonism as a movement and philosophy of life coexists normally with other life positions. At least that's how it was until today.

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site

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Using hamburgers as an example, the author identifies 4 archetypes of human behavior, characterized by specific psychological attitudes and behavioral patterns: Hedonist, Nihilist, Rat Race Participant and Simply Happy Person

(I think it would be better without hamburgers, but what can you do, American author)

Archetype Hedonism

The first archetypal hamburger is a tasty but unhealthy bun with questionable toppings. Eating this hamburger at the present moment would be good, since it would give me pleasure (“current good”), but in the future it would certainly turn out to be evil, since I would feel bad afterwards (“future evil”).

A characteristic feature that defines archetype of hedonism, precisely lies in the fact that everything that happens at the moment is perceived as good, but in the future it will certainly turn out to be evil. Hedonists live by the principle: “Strive for pleasure and avoid suffering”; All their efforts are aimed at enjoying life today and now, ignoring the potential negative consequences of their actions in the future.

A hedonist seeks pleasure and avoids suffering. He cares only about satisfying his own desires and thinks almost nothing about future consequences. A fulfilling life, in his opinion, comes down to a sequence of pleasant sensations. If something gives him pleasure at the moment, this serves as sufficient justification for doing it until a new hobby comes to replace the old hobby. The hedonist enthusiastically makes new friends and lovers, but as soon as their novelty fades, he immediately finds new attachments. Since a hedonist is fixated only on what is happening to him at the moment, for the sake of momentary pleasure he is ready to commit actions that can subsequently cause him enormous damage. If drugs bring him pleasure, he will take them; if he feels that work is too difficult, he will avoid it.

The hedonist makes the mistake of identifying any effort with suffering, and pleasure with happiness. We cannot find happiness if we seek only pleasures and avoid suffering. And yet, the hedonist living inside each of us, in an inescapable longing for some kind of Garden of Eden, continues to identify work with suffering, and idleness with pleasure.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who in his scientific work studies almost exclusively states of highest creative activity and spiritual elation, argues that “ The best moments in a person's life usually come when his body or mind is stretched to the limit in a voluntary effort to complete some difficult task or accomplishment" A hedonistic existence without struggle is not a recipe for happiness.

Living in a hedonistic manner can also be useful at times. Anyone who lives for today becomes younger at heart - as long as in the long term this does not lead to any negative consequences (like those that occur from taking drugs). If we relax a little, sit back and enjoy life - lay on the beach, eat hamburgers from McDonald's, and then enjoy an ice cream sundae with whipped cream or just watch TV - it will only make us happier.

Question: Think back to a time—whether it was a single episode or a long period of time—when you lived as a hedonist. What have you gained and what have you lost by living this way?

Rat Race Archetype

The second type of hamburger that came to mind was a bland, meatless veggie bun made with only healthy ingredients. Eating such a hamburger would be good for the future, since as a result I would be healthy and feel good (“future good”), but at the moment it would cause me nothing but trouble, because I would be disgusted to chew this rubbish (“current evil”).
This hamburger matches rat race archetype. From the point of view of the “rat”, the present is not worth a penny compared to the future, and the poor fellow suffers in the name of some anticipated gain.

Participants in the rat race are distinguished primarily by their inability to enjoy their activities, and also by their ineradicable belief that if they achieve some specific goal, they will be happy forever and ever.

The reason why there are so many people around us participating in the rat race is because of our culture, which encourages such superstitions to take root. If we finish the semester with only tens, we receive a gift from our parents; If we fulfill the plan at work, then at the end of the year we receive a bonus. We get used to not thinking about anything other than the goal that looms before us on the horizon, and not paying attention to what is happening to us at the moment. All our lives we have been chasing the endlessly eluding ghost of the future.infantry We are rewarded and praised not for what happens to us along the way, but only for the successful completion of the journey. Society rewards us for results, not for the process itself; for the fact that we have reached the goal, and not for the fact that we have walked the path that leads to it.

As soon as we achieve our intended goal, we immediately experience a feeling of relief, which is so easy to confuse with happiness. The heavier the burden we carry on the journey, the stronger and more pleasant the feeling of relief we experience. When we confuse this momentary relief with happiness, we reinforce the illusion that simply achieving a goal will make us happy. The feeling of relief, of course, has a certain value for us - it is pleasant and very real - but it should not be confused with happiness.

The feeling of relief can be considered a kind of negative happiness, since its source is the same stress and anxiety, but taken with the opposite sign. By its very nature, relief involves unpleasant experiences, and therefore the happiness that arises from a feeling of relief cannot last for any long time. If a woman suffering from a painful migraine suddenly stops having a headache, she will feel like the happiest person in the world because of the mere absence of pain. But since such “happiness” is always preceded by suffering, the absence of pain is just a momentary relief from extremely negative experiences.

Moreover, the feeling of relief is always temporary. When our temples stop pounding, the absence of pain itself gives us a certain pleasure, but then we very quickly get used to this state and take it for granted.

A participant in the rat race who confuses relief with happiness spends his entire life chasing his goals, believing that all he needs to do to be happy is simply achieving something.

Question: don't you feel from time to time that you are just like a participant in the rat race? If you could look at your life from the outside, what advice would you give yourself?

Archetype of Nihilism

The third type of hamburger is the worst of all, being both tasteless and unhealthy. If I ate it, it would harm me both in the present, since the hamburger tastes disgusting, and in the future, since eating it would seriously harm my health.
The closest parallel for such a hamburger is archetype of nihilism. It is characteristic of a person who lost the taste for life;such a person is unable to either enjoy momentary joys or strive for a great goal.

In the context of this book, a nihilist is a person who became disillusioned with the very possibility of happiness and resignedly resigned himself to the fact that life has no meaning. If the archetype of the rat race very successfully characterizes the state of a person who lives for a bright future, and the archetype of hedonism - the state of a person who lives for today, then the archetype of nihilism accurately reflects the state of a person who is chained to the past. Those who have come to terms with their current misfortune and are confident in advance that the same life is destined for them in the future, cannot get out of their heads their previous unsuccessful attempts to become happy.

Question: Try to remember a time - whether it was a single episode or a fairly long period of time - when you felt like a nihilist, unable to get out of the shell of your then misfortune. If you had the opportunity to look at this situation from the outside, what advice would you give yourself?

Both a participant in the rat race, a hedonist, and a nihilist - all of them, each in their own way, are mistaken - they incorrectly interpret reality, do not understand the true nature of happiness and do not know what is needed for a full life. A participant in the rat race suffers from the “deception of all achievements” - the false belief that if we achieve a very important goal, we will be happy for the rest of our days. The hedonist suffers from the “deceptiveness of the present moment”—the false belief that happiness can be experienced by immersing ourselves in an endless stream of momentary pleasures in isolation from our life’s purpose. Nihilism is also a delusion, an incorrect interpretation of reality - a mistaken belief that no matter how you look at it, happiness is still unattainable. The misconception mentioned above stems from the inability to see the possibility of a synthesis between the desire to achieve something and the current moment - some kind of third path along which it will be possible to get out of the unenviable situation in which we find ourselves.

Archetype of Happiness

However, these three archetypes I have presented by no means exhaust all possible options - there is one more that we need to consider. How about a hamburger that's every bit as tasty as the one I gave up, and every bit as healthy as a meatless veggie bun? A hamburger that simultaneously contains both present and future good?

This hamburger is a living illustration archetype of happiness. Happy people live calmly, in the firm belief that... The very activities that give them a lot of pleasure in the present will provide them with a fulfilling life in the future.

The illusion of a participant in the rat race is that if someday in the future he manages to achieve his intended goal, he will be happy for the rest of his days; he does not realize that the path to the goal is no less important than the goal itself. The illusion of a hedonist, on the contrary, is that only the path is important to him, but not the goal. The nihilist, despairing of achieving the goal and giving up on both it and the path to it, became completely disillusioned with life. A participant in the rat race becomes a slave of the future, a hedonist becomes a slave of the present, and a nihilist becomes a slave of the past.

In order to become happy seriously and for a long time, it is necessary to enjoy the very road to a goal that we consider worthyy. Happiness does not lie in climbing to the top of a mountain, nor in wandering aimlessly through the mountains; happiness is what we experience when we climb to the top.

Our main goal is to spend as much time as possible doing those things that are a source of not only present but also future benefits for us.

Question: Think back to one or two times in your life when you enjoyed both present and future benefits.

Exercise Four Sectors

Surveys of people who regularly keep diaries indicate that writing about the events in our lives - both negative and positive - helps improve our mental and physical health.

For four days in a row, write for at least fifteen minutes a day about what happened to you in each of these four quadrants. Write about the times when you were a participant in the rat race, a hedonist and a nihilist. On the fourth day, write about happy times in your life. If you get moved enough to want to write more about a particular sector, do so, but don't write about more than one sector per day.

Don't worry about grammar or spelling - just write. It is important that in your essay you honestly talked about the emotions that you once experienced or are experiencing now, as well as about what kind of behavioral scenario you carried out (that is, what actions you performed then) and what thoughts were in your head or arose in it while writing this text.

Here are some instructions on what to write in each of these four quadrants:
. PARTICIPANT IN THE RAT RACE. Tell me about a time in your life when you felt like a rat, running non-stop on a treadmill towards a “brighter future.” Why did you do this? What benefits did such a life bring you, if, of course, there was any benefit in this for you? What price did you pay for it or did you not pay any?
. HEDONIST. Tell us about a time in your life when you lived as a hedonist or indulged in hedonistic pleasures. What benefits did such a life bring you, if, of course, there was any benefit in this for you? What price did you pay for it or did you not pay any?
. NIHILIST. Tell us about the most difficult moments in your life, when you gave up on everything and resigned yourself to your bitter fate. Or what happened to you over a longer period of time during which you felt helpless. Share your innermost feelings and thoughts that came to your mind then and now as you write this text.
. HAPPY MAN. Tell us about an incredibly happy time in your life or a time when you were especially happy. Travel back in time in your imagination, try to re-experience your emotions at that time, and then write about them.
Whatever you write, as long as you write it, your writings are for your own eyes only. If, after finishing writing, you want to read what you have written to a loved one, you, of course, have the right to do this, but it is important that you do not feel constrained when performing this exercise. The more you can open up, the more benefit you will get from your writings.

The nihilism sector and the happiness sector will need to be worked on at least twice more. When you do the exercise again, you can remember the same events or write about something different. Review everything you've written from time to time - this can be done once every three months, once a year or once every two years.

based on the book by Tal Ben-Shahar: Learning to be Happy

from Greek hedone - pleasure, pleasure) - English. hedonism; German Hedonismus. Moral and ethical doctrine, position, in accordance with which pleasure is the highest good and criterion of human behavior, determining the entire system of moral requirements.

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HEDONISM

Greek hedone - pleasure) is an ethical and behavioral attitude, according to which the basis of human nature is his desire for pleasure, and therefore all values ​​and orientations of activity must be subordinated or reduced to pleasure as the true highest good.

G. first manifests itself in the ancient Greek Cyrenaic school, where it is radicalized as a meaningful life, and the surrounding world is understood as an object of aesthetic and sensual pleasure in all its expressions (for example, the beauty of disaster). Epicurus sought, by observing moderation in pleasures, to avoid suffering; his ideal was a self-enclosed life, full of sensual and spiritual pleasures that did not bring satiety. Christianity contrasts G. with asceticism, but it is in the latter that G. manifests itself in the form of enjoying one’s own suffering. A return to the moderate G. Epicurus and recognition of the value of the sensual occurs during the Renaissance, which set the foundation for the ideas of ethical egoism of the enlighteners of the 18th century. I. Kant rejects G. for his adherence to the sensual, incapable of setting the basis for morality. Utilitarianism defines its central concept of "utility" as the achievement of pleasure or the avoidance of pain. Again, a radical implementation of the principles of humanity is found in individualism, which recognizes the possibility of enjoying at the expense of another or society in general.

pleasure") is an ethical doctrine that considers pleasure to be the highest good, and the desire for pleasure as a principle of behavior. Developed by Aristippus (Cyrenaic). It should be distinguished from eudaimonism, which recognizes the pursuit of happiness as the basis of moral behavior.

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HEDONISM

Greek pleasure) is a method widely used in the history of ethical thought to substantiate morality and interpret its nature and goals. The entire content of G.'s various moral requirements is reduced to a common goal - to obtain pleasure and avoid suffering. This goal is considered as the main one. the driving principle in a person, inherent in him by nature (Naturalism) ft ultimately determining all his actions. As a principle of morality that prescribes people to strive for earthly joys, G (like eudaimonism) is the opposite of asceticism. In Ancient In Greece, Democritus and Aristippus were among the first philosophers to implement the principle of philosophy in ethics. The most famous for his justification of G. Epicurus, whose name is associated with a whole movement in moral theory - Epicureanism. The idea of ​​G. was also preached by the Roman follower of Epicurus, Lucretius. In the Middle Ages, ideologists of the Christian Church sharply condemned humanity, considering earthly pleasures sinful (Sin). The principle of humanity in ethics was revived again in the era of the emergence and establishment of bourgeois relations. This is not accidental, since he perfectly corresponded to the “classical” bourgeois view of man, first of all, as a private entrepreneur (“the driving principle of a society is a private individual pursuing his own interests; the goal of society and, consequently, morality there must be the good of this private individual, and his material well-being is, ultimately, the content of the universal good.) Hobbes, Locke, Gassendi, Spinoza, and French materialists of the 18th century, in the struggle against the religious understanding of morality, often resorted to a hedonistic interpretation of morality. Subsequently, the principle of gastronomy found its most complete expression in utilitarianism.The ideas of taxonomy are shared by many theorists of modern bourgeois ethics - J. Santayana, M. Schlick, D. Drew, etc. In ancient times and in modern times, taxonomy played a generally progressive role and ethics, since he opposed religious morality and represented his attempt to interpret the morality of materialistic positions. However, it cannot be considered a scientific principle of ethical theory. Moreover, it does not correspond to the modern level of titles about man. Marxism views man as a social being. From this view. the reduction of diverse human needs to obtaining pleasure is an extreme simplification and: ultimately comes from a biological or purely psychological understanding of man as only a natural being. The hedonistic principle, in addition, is individualistic in nature and often gravitates towards ethical relativism. The pleasures themselves, to which people strive, have a specific historical nature, their content is not the same in different hysterical eras and in different social groups. Therefore, only in social practice should one look for the origin of the trends of aspirations and goals that people set for themselves. In the modern bourgeois society, a complex of moral ideas of anarcho-G. is being formed, where the “natural” human inclinations for boundless pleasures are mystified and deified, work discipline, social duties, cultural and moral norms are rejected as the support of conservatism (Nihilism), demands are put forward to search for new uncontrolled primitive connections between people, legalization of immorality. Anarcho-G. serves, on the one hand, as an extreme means for the mass spread/morality of consumerism, and on the other hand, as a way to distract critical layers of the bourgeois society from truly revolutionary morality

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