from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. Pursuit of or devotion to pleasure, especially to the pleasures of the senses.
- n. Philosophy The ethical doctrine holding that only what is pleasant or has pleasant consequences is intrinsically good.
- n. Psychology The doctrine holding that behavior is motivated by the desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. The belief that pleasure or happiness is the highest good in life. Some hedonists, such as the Epicureans, have insisted that pleasure of the entire mind, not just pleasure of the senses, is the highest good.
- n. A general devotion to the pursuit of pleasure.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. The doctrine of the Hedonic sect; the pursuit of pleasure as a matter of ethical principle.
- n. The ethical theory which finds the explanation and authority of duty in its tendency to give pleasure.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The doctrine of Aristippus and the Cyrenaic school of Greek philosophers, that the pleasure of the moment is the only possible end, that one kind of pleasure is not to be preferred to another, and that a man should in the interest of pleasure govern his pleasures and not be governed by them; hence, that ethical doctrine which regards pleasure or happiness as the highest good.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. the pursuit of pleasure as a matter of ethical principle
- n. an ethical system that evaluates the pursuit of pleasure as the highest good
This distinction does not save you, because more sophisticated long-term hedonism is really no better than short-term hedonism both of which must be distinguished from disciplined action.
We are now watching the spectacle of another experiment in hedonism, the European Union, as it learns the grim facts of life.
I'm just not sure if the 10% hedonism is a flaw or a virtue.
A wealth of Bayou-flavored music, rude behavior and unfettered hedonism is captured in this joyful cinematic kaleidoscope.
Words like "hedonism" --  terms of large and vague comprehension -- above all when used for a purpose avowedly controversial, have ever been the worst examples of what are called "question-begging terms;" and in that late age in which Marius lived, amid the dust of so many centuries of philosophical debate, the air was full of them.
April 21st, 2010 at 1: 15 pm dbadass says: he’d as in hedonism ….
The self-interested desires to experience pleasure and to avoid pain have played an especially prominent role in the debate, since one version of egoism, often called hedonism, maintains that these are our only ultimate desires.
A long-standing objection to Mill's move here has been to claim that his position can no longer be described as hedonism proper (or what I have called 'explanatory hedonism').
The answer would be No. They want everything around them to be arranged such that they can indulge in hedonism.
This more restrictive view, often called hedonism, has had proponents since the time of Epicurus