Hedonism: Part one (History and basic applications)

When most people hear the word hedonism, their mind conjures up images of drunkards, druggies, teenagers screaming in a convertible, overweight people eating more and more and calling it “hedonistic”. While alcohol and drugs can be pleasurable; they’re not all hedonism consists of, and if taken to extremes leads to more pain than pleasure.

The term “hedonism,” from the Greek word ἡδονή (hēdonē) for pleasure, refers to several related theories about what is good for us, how we should behave, and what motivates us to behave in the way that we do. All hedonistic theories identify pleasure and pain as the only important elements of whatever phenomena they are designed to describe.

This series will use hedonism as a way to live the “Good” life. The “Good” life in this case is synonymous with the “best” life and a life well-lived. I believe that a life filled with pleasure is the good life, and one filled with pain is a bad life. While there are a few major hedonist philosophers, this series will use one as its guide; Aristippus of Cyrene.

Some of you with a background in philosophy may be wondering why I’m not using Epicurus as our guide. The answer is simple; Epicurus used pleasure as a stepping stone to happiness and not as an end to itself. Aristippus used pleasure as an end to itself and said that happiness and confidence would come as a side-effect to pleasure.

Aristippus of Cyrene is normally credited with being the founder of hedonism. While this is untrue because traces of hedonism can be seen in the Cārvāka, we can credit Aristippus with being one of the first to try to systematize hedonism for a Western audience and use his life as an example of his philosophy. Aristippus was born around 435 B.C in Cyrene and made his way to Athens for the Olympic games after he received proper schooling. When he got to Athens, he was filled with a desire to find Socrates who is considered the father of Western philosophy. When Socrates posed the question “What is the good life?” Aristippus is believed to respond with “Pleasure” and thus, hedonism was born in the Western sense. Aristippus certainly lived pleasurably, he dined elegantly and dressed luxuriously. He was constantly reproached for his lifestyle by many of his contemporaries; but he didn’t care in the slightest. We will explore Aristippus’ axioms and second-hand accounts later.

Some of you may be concerned about living “elegantly” and “luxuriously” because of financial reasons. I’m happy to tell you that Aristippus was famous for living pleasurably whether he was in rags or in elegant purple robes. According to Diogenes Laertius in The life of Aristippus Plato said the following about Aristippus, “You alone are endowed with the gift to flaunt in robes or go in rags.” so rejoice; it’s not about what you have it’s about your perception about what you have.