Tag: hedonism
3 posts tagged "hedonism".
The view that pleasure and the avoidance of pain are the central goods in life, whether as a psychological claim about what motivates us or an ethical claim about what we ought to pursue. It runs from the ancient Epicureans through Jeremy Bentham and the utilitarians, who tried to make pleasure the measurable unit of ethics. On the blog hedonism is treated with suspicion: the hedonic treadmill shows that chasing pleasure yields diminishing returns, and the Stoics argued that a good life depends more on virtue and equanimity than on maximising sensation. It sits in tension with deeper accounts of happiness and meaning-making that prize purpose over momentary feeling.
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The Embarrassing Problem of Premature Exploitation
Video games give you a clear pathway for leveling up into a muscle-bound hero, and impressing scantily-clad elven princesses with your Very Big Sword.
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The Brave New World of Wireheading
The proverbial drunk searches for his keys under the streetlight, despite having lost them out in the darkness.
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Throw Away Your Television
TV wriggles into our heads and changes our brain function, our reward systems, our moods. Let's pluck out the parasite, and take back control of our lives.
