A Note on Hedonism.

I was thinking about the documentary I watched recently on the composer, Delius, and decided that I dislike hedonism and hedonists. Delius was described by one person as ‘the ultimate hedonist.’ Oh dear, that’s a shame. Sorry, Frederick, but I do still find your music exquisite.

I asked myself why I dislike hedonism, and it occurred to me that hedonism is the antithesis of Puritanism. So does that make me a Puritan? I certainly wouldn’t say so, and I’m sure that those who know me would agree. I think part of the problem is that whereas hedonists see pleasure as an absolute end in itself, I’m more inclined to want to explore the nature and meaning of pleasure. So is that a reason to dislike hedonists? Not really. I needed to go further, and so I checked the definition of the word on OED online. It said:

The pursuit of pleasure; sensual self-indulgence.

Nothing much wrong with that, is there? What’s so wrong with pursuing pleasure, or even being sensually self-indulgent? I read a little further to the philosophical definition:

The ethical theory that pleasure (in the sense of the satisfaction of desires) is the highest good and proper aim of human life.

‘Highest good.’ ‘Proper aim.’ Ah, maybe now we’re getting somewhere, because it seems to me that hedonism, when taken to its ultimate expression, is a weak and shallow philosophy. It tends to subvert, or even cast aside altogether, all those other principles and aspirations which it seems necessary to consider if life is to have any value – idealistic principles like altruism, duty, high ethical standards, and maybe most of all, the quest to discover what, if anything, lies beyond the material reality in which we exist as material beings. And so it seems to me that hedonism is only justified if you have engaged with that quest and satisfied yourself – honestly and without any quantifiable cause for doubt – that nothing lies beyond it. Such a conclusion is certainly not provable and the world is awash with anecdotal evidence to the contrary, and thus I am not so persuaded. I suppose that’s why I dislike hedonism.

I know someone who is a hedonist by inclination, but is also a searcher for truth and the meaning of life. She is, like me, an explorer of the human condition and the nature of perception. As such, she is inevitably driven to make regular forays into the great existential conundrum, and that’s when she hits conflict. It’s hardly surprising.