PSYCHOLOGICAL HEDONISM

Meaning
The term Hedonism has been derived from a Greek word Hedone meaning Pleasure.

Nature of Hedonism
According to hedonism pleasure is the highest good. Pleasure is the end of life and devotion to pleasure is a way of life. The theory of psychological hedonism is a description of human nature. It teaches that man by nature seeks pleasure. It follows from this that all men in all their activities are seeking pleasure and nothing but pleasure. Psychological hedonism holds that pursuit of pleasure is rooted in human nature. And behavior is primarily motivated by the desire to avoid pain or experience pleasure. Men may appear to seek other things as learning, wealth or virtuous character but actually they are seeking such things as means to pleasure. In other words, pleasure is the sole object of human desire.
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Motives to action
Man always does an action with a reason or a motive, which might be duty, mercy, respect or pleasure. What the psychological hedonists try to prove is that pleasure is the only motive or tendency determining human actions.

Pleasure
According to Mackenzie, pleasure means agreeable feeling or feeling of satisfaction. The moralists have classified hedonism into two:

Psychological hedonism holds that man by

nature seeks pleasure.

Ethical hedonism teaches what man ought to seek

or it is a moral obligation of man to seek pleasure.

It means that seeking pleasure is restricted by certain moral principles. Ethical hedonism is a more plausible form of hedonism.

Criticism
There are certain experiences like the satisfaction of bodily appetites and enjoyment of perceiving beautiful objects which are so universally pleasant that it is plausible to accept psychological hedonism.

There are, however, good reasons to refute psychological hedonism.

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Many people do seek pleasure but some people on some occasions do not do so. It is not proved that in every individual there is a natural tendency to seek ones own pleasure. When we desire do not consciously desire pleasure. We may desire food, music or exercise without any thought of pleasant feeling that their attainment will bring us.

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So what we desire is not merely the pleasant feeling but the object arousing it. For example, how much we love music and get pleasure from listening to it, music will not satisfy us if the desire at the moment is food. Even in the animal world, mother animal will endure pain and will sacrifice her life for the sake of her young. When a human mother engages in similar conduct, the Psychological hedonists maintain that she does so for the sake of certain reasons: 1. She does so for the sake of future pleasure that she enjoy the society of her child. 2. She may save herself from the painfulness of remorse.
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3. She may give herself a momentary thrill of satisfaction over her extreme sacrifice on behalf of her child.
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Desire itself is not necessarily pleasant. An activity like killing ones enemy is naturally unpleasant; it is only when a man is determined from the motive of revenge to kill his enemy that it will give him pleasure to do so.

5.Paradox of Hedonism
Sidgwick pointed out that the best way to achieve pleasure is to forget it. The player of a game who is continually thinking of the game will probably miss the enjoyment to a great extent. While the player who gives his mind to the playing and winning the game, gets the fullest enjoyment out of it.

Conclusion
Common sense gives no moral approval to actions which bring pleasure to their doer, but to those actions which bring pleasure to other people. In other words, moral actions are those which increase human happiness.
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