Fred Feldman
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- August 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199265169
- eISBN:
- 9780191601385
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019926516X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Hedonism is the view that the Good Life is the pleasant life. The central aim of this book is to show that, when carefully and charitably interpreted, certain forms of hedonism yield plausible ...
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Hedonism is the view that the Good Life is the pleasant life. The central aim of this book is to show that, when carefully and charitably interpreted, certain forms of hedonism yield plausible evaluations of human lives. The forms defended understand pleasure as intrinsic attitudinal pleasure. Rejects all forms of sensory hedonism. Defends preferred forms of hedonism against a barrage of classic objections derived from Plato, Aristotle, Brentano, Moore, Ross, Rawls, and many others. Compares the author's forms of hedonism to the hedonistic views of Aristippus, Epicurus, Bentham, and Mill. Some views in value theory are typically thought to be anti‐hedonistic. Shows that some of these views are equivalent to forms of hedonism. Also defends the claim that all the allegedly hedonistic theories discussed in the book are properly classified as forms of ‘hedonism’. Near the end of the book, the author presents his vision of the Good Life and mentions some remaining problems.Less
Hedonism is the view that the Good Life is the pleasant life. The central aim of this book is to show that, when carefully and charitably interpreted, certain forms of hedonism yield plausible evaluations of human lives. The forms defended understand pleasure as intrinsic attitudinal pleasure. Rejects all forms of sensory hedonism. Defends preferred forms of hedonism against a barrage of classic objections derived from Plato, Aristotle, Brentano, Moore, Ross, Rawls, and many others. Compares the author's forms of hedonism to the hedonistic views of Aristippus, Epicurus, Bentham, and Mill. Some views in value theory are typically thought to be anti‐hedonistic. Shows that some of these views are equivalent to forms of hedonism. Also defends the claim that all the allegedly hedonistic theories discussed in the book are properly classified as forms of ‘hedonism’. Near the end of the book, the author presents his vision of the Good Life and mentions some remaining problems.
Kurt Lampe
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161136
- eISBN:
- 9781400852499
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161136.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
According to Xenophon, Socrates tried to persuade his associate Aristippus to moderate his excessive indulgence in wine, women, and food, arguing that only hard work can bring happiness. Aristippus ...
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According to Xenophon, Socrates tried to persuade his associate Aristippus to moderate his excessive indulgence in wine, women, and food, arguing that only hard work can bring happiness. Aristippus wasn't convinced. Instead, he and his followers espoused the most radical form of hedonism in ancient Western philosophy. Before the rise of the better known but comparatively ascetic Epicureans, the Cyrenaics pursued a way of life in which moments of pleasure, particularly bodily pleasure, held the highest value. This book provides the most comprehensive account in any language of Cyrenaic ideas and behavior, revolutionizing the understanding of this neglected but important school of philosophy. The book reconstructs the doctrines and practices of the Cyrenaics, who were active between the fourth and third centuries BCE. The book examines not only Aristippus and the mainstream Cyrenaics, but also Hegesias, Anniceris, and Theodorus. Contrary to recent scholarship, the book shows that the Cyrenaics, despite giving primary value to discrete pleasurable experiences, accepted the dominant Greek philosophical belief that life-long happiness and the virtues that sustain it are the principal concerns of ethics. The book also offers the first in-depth effort to understand Theodorus' atheism and Hegesias' pessimism, both of which are extremely unusual in ancient Greek philosophy and which raise the interesting question of hedonism's relationship to pessimism and atheism. Finally, the book explores the “new Cyrenaicism” of the nineteenth-century writer and classicist Walter Pater, who drew out the enduring philosophical interest of Cyrenaic hedonism more than any other modern thinker.Less
According to Xenophon, Socrates tried to persuade his associate Aristippus to moderate his excessive indulgence in wine, women, and food, arguing that only hard work can bring happiness. Aristippus wasn't convinced. Instead, he and his followers espoused the most radical form of hedonism in ancient Western philosophy. Before the rise of the better known but comparatively ascetic Epicureans, the Cyrenaics pursued a way of life in which moments of pleasure, particularly bodily pleasure, held the highest value. This book provides the most comprehensive account in any language of Cyrenaic ideas and behavior, revolutionizing the understanding of this neglected but important school of philosophy. The book reconstructs the doctrines and practices of the Cyrenaics, who were active between the fourth and third centuries BCE. The book examines not only Aristippus and the mainstream Cyrenaics, but also Hegesias, Anniceris, and Theodorus. Contrary to recent scholarship, the book shows that the Cyrenaics, despite giving primary value to discrete pleasurable experiences, accepted the dominant Greek philosophical belief that life-long happiness and the virtues that sustain it are the principal concerns of ethics. The book also offers the first in-depth effort to understand Theodorus' atheism and Hegesias' pessimism, both of which are extremely unusual in ancient Greek philosophy and which raise the interesting question of hedonism's relationship to pessimism and atheism. Finally, the book explores the “new Cyrenaicism” of the nineteenth-century writer and classicist Walter Pater, who drew out the enduring philosophical interest of Cyrenaic hedonism more than any other modern thinker.
TERENCE IRWIN
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198242673
- eISBN:
- 9780191680519
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198242673.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter examines the methods and doctrines that Plato treats as distinctive of Socrates. Socrates commits himself to three main paradoxes and the ...
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This chapter examines the methods and doctrines that Plato treats as distinctive of Socrates. Socrates commits himself to three main paradoxes and the chapter discusses what Socrates means by his paradoxical claims, and why he believes them. The main ostensible source consists of the Platonic dialogues in which Socrates is a principal speaker. However, ancient readers do not treat all these dialogues as evidence for Socrates' views. Diogenes and Aristippus claim to be followers of Socrates, but they have harsh words for Plato and his doctrines. Aristotle attributes some of the doctrines found in the Platonic dialogues to Socrates, and others to Plato. The Stoics criticize Plato, but not Socrates, on some ethical questions. The division that these readers mark, explicitly or implicitly, between Socrates and Plato can be understood on the assumption that they agree with Aristotle's judgment about which doctrines are Socratic and which are Platonic. He often contrasts Socrates' ethical theory with Plato's. He ascribes a purely cognitive view of virtue to Socrates, but never to Plato.Less
This chapter examines the methods and doctrines that Plato treats as distinctive of Socrates. Socrates commits himself to three main paradoxes and the chapter discusses what Socrates means by his paradoxical claims, and why he believes them. The main ostensible source consists of the Platonic dialogues in which Socrates is a principal speaker. However, ancient readers do not treat all these dialogues as evidence for Socrates' views. Diogenes and Aristippus claim to be followers of Socrates, but they have harsh words for Plato and his doctrines. Aristotle attributes some of the doctrines found in the Platonic dialogues to Socrates, and others to Plato. The Stoics criticize Plato, but not Socrates, on some ethical questions. The division that these readers mark, explicitly or implicitly, between Socrates and Plato can be understood on the assumption that they agree with Aristotle's judgment about which doctrines are Socratic and which are Platonic. He often contrasts Socrates' ethical theory with Plato's. He ascribes a purely cognitive view of virtue to Socrates, but never to Plato.
TERENCE IRWIN
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198242673
- eISBN:
- 9780191680519
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198242673.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, History of Philosophy
In Plato's lifetime, Aristippus, a disciple of Socrates, defended at least some aspects of the hedonist position that came to be known as Cyrenaic. At ...
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In Plato's lifetime, Aristippus, a disciple of Socrates, defended at least some aspects of the hedonist position that came to be known as Cyrenaic. At the same time, Antisthenes defended the sufficiency of virtue for happiness, and understood this doctrine to exclude hedonism. His views were taken to extremes by Diogenes the Cynic. Later critics were surprised that moralists with such sharply opposed views could all claim to defend a Socratic position. Some have called the Cyrenaics and Cynics ‘the incomplete Socratics’, conveying the suggestion that they saw only one side of Socrates, and presumably that Plato and Aristotle saw both sides, and so reached a more accurate picture of him. This suggestion may not be quite fair to the one-sided Socratics. Socrates' views may have been indefinite enough to make each ‘incomplete’ construal of him a defensible way of tying up some loose ends that Socrates left.Less
In Plato's lifetime, Aristippus, a disciple of Socrates, defended at least some aspects of the hedonist position that came to be known as Cyrenaic. At the same time, Antisthenes defended the sufficiency of virtue for happiness, and understood this doctrine to exclude hedonism. His views were taken to extremes by Diogenes the Cynic. Later critics were surprised that moralists with such sharply opposed views could all claim to defend a Socratic position. Some have called the Cyrenaics and Cynics ‘the incomplete Socratics’, conveying the suggestion that they saw only one side of Socrates, and presumably that Plato and Aristotle saw both sides, and so reached a more accurate picture of him. This suggestion may not be quite fair to the one-sided Socratics. Socrates' views may have been indefinite enough to make each ‘incomplete’ construal of him a defensible way of tying up some loose ends that Socrates left.
J. C. B. Gosling and C. C. W. Taylor
- Published in print:
- 1982
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198246664
- eISBN:
- 9780191681035
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198246664.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter examines the evidence for the development in the pre-Platonic period of explicitly evaluative theories concerning pleasure. It involves firstly consideration of the views of Democritus, ...
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This chapter examines the evidence for the development in the pre-Platonic period of explicitly evaluative theories concerning pleasure. It involves firstly consideration of the views of Democritus, and secondly an attempt to discover what can be known about the position of Socrates, and finally that of Aristippus.Less
This chapter examines the evidence for the development in the pre-Platonic period of explicitly evaluative theories concerning pleasure. It involves firstly consideration of the views of Democritus, and secondly an attempt to discover what can be known about the position of Socrates, and finally that of Aristippus.
Kurt Lampe
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161136
- eISBN:
- 9781400852499
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161136.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter examines the significance of all the named Cyrenaics, as well as the culture of ancient Cyrene, and introduces the members of the Cyrenaic movement. The principal figures are Aristippus, ...
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This chapter examines the significance of all the named Cyrenaics, as well as the culture of ancient Cyrene, and introduces the members of the Cyrenaic movement. The principal figures are Aristippus, their notional founder, who followed Socrates; the mainstream Cyrenaics, who first codified Aristippus' inspirational example; Hegesias, who accentuated the mainstream Cyrenaics' egoistic individualism and introduced pessimism; Anniceris, who opposed Hegesias by reasserting the importance of personal and civic relationships; and Theodorus, an eclectic and flamboyant thinker, who is most renowned for his supposed “atheism.” The chapter traces their history from around 435 BCE to around 250 BCE. Most of these philosophers were born in or around Cyrene, though some are known to have been active abroad.Less
This chapter examines the significance of all the named Cyrenaics, as well as the culture of ancient Cyrene, and introduces the members of the Cyrenaic movement. The principal figures are Aristippus, their notional founder, who followed Socrates; the mainstream Cyrenaics, who first codified Aristippus' inspirational example; Hegesias, who accentuated the mainstream Cyrenaics' egoistic individualism and introduced pessimism; Anniceris, who opposed Hegesias by reasserting the importance of personal and civic relationships; and Theodorus, an eclectic and flamboyant thinker, who is most renowned for his supposed “atheism.” The chapter traces their history from around 435 BCE to around 250 BCE. Most of these philosophers were born in or around Cyrene, though some are known to have been active abroad.
Kurt Lampe
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161136
- eISBN:
- 9781400852499
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161136.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter deals with Cyrenaic positions on personal and civic relationships, beginning with a short overview of assumptions about positive and negative reciprocity in ancient Greek ...
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This chapter deals with Cyrenaic positions on personal and civic relationships, beginning with a short overview of assumptions about positive and negative reciprocity in ancient Greek culture—friendship and enmity, benefaction and injury, intra-polis solidarity and inter-polis war, etc. The chapter then looks at the tension between involvement in these cultural institutions and withdrawal into self-sufficiency, which develops from Aristippus through mainstream Cyrenaicism. This tension is abolished by Hegesias and Theodorus, who repudiate all of the relationships involved and embrace what we might call ethical solipsism. Finally, the chapter analyzes how Anniceris opposes Hegesias by reappraising the importance of friendship, filial piety, and civic participation for effective hedonism.Less
This chapter deals with Cyrenaic positions on personal and civic relationships, beginning with a short overview of assumptions about positive and negative reciprocity in ancient Greek culture—friendship and enmity, benefaction and injury, intra-polis solidarity and inter-polis war, etc. The chapter then looks at the tension between involvement in these cultural institutions and withdrawal into self-sufficiency, which develops from Aristippus through mainstream Cyrenaicism. This tension is abolished by Hegesias and Theodorus, who repudiate all of the relationships involved and embrace what we might call ethical solipsism. Finally, the chapter analyzes how Anniceris opposes Hegesias by reappraising the importance of friendship, filial piety, and civic participation for effective hedonism.
Kurt Lampe
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161136
- eISBN:
- 9781400852499
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161136.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This concluding chapter argues for a new understanding of ancient Cyrenaic ethics, including the development of the movement from Aristippus through to the mainstream Cyrenaics, Hegesiacs, ...
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This concluding chapter argues for a new understanding of ancient Cyrenaic ethics, including the development of the movement from Aristippus through to the mainstream Cyrenaics, Hegesiacs, Annicereans, and Theodoreans. Such a comprehensive study would need not only to reconstruct the surviving doctrines and arguments, but also to understand the behavioral and cultural contexts within which Cyrenaic theories seemed both cogent and attractive, at least to certain individuals. The chapter also seeks to illuminate the philosophical significance of Cyrenaic ethics. This significance is sometimes spelled out by making the Cyrenaics the originators of the hedonistic tradition in Western philosophy. While all hedonists organize their beliefs around the high valuation of pleasure, those beliefs are also shaped by many other contexts, among them intellectual history, popular ethics, and the practices and institutions which define philosophy in any given era.Less
This concluding chapter argues for a new understanding of ancient Cyrenaic ethics, including the development of the movement from Aristippus through to the mainstream Cyrenaics, Hegesiacs, Annicereans, and Theodoreans. Such a comprehensive study would need not only to reconstruct the surviving doctrines and arguments, but also to understand the behavioral and cultural contexts within which Cyrenaic theories seemed both cogent and attractive, at least to certain individuals. The chapter also seeks to illuminate the philosophical significance of Cyrenaic ethics. This significance is sometimes spelled out by making the Cyrenaics the originators of the hedonistic tradition in Western philosophy. While all hedonists organize their beliefs around the high valuation of pleasure, those beliefs are also shaped by many other contexts, among them intellectual history, popular ethics, and the practices and institutions which define philosophy in any given era.
Kurt Lampe
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161136
- eISBN:
- 9781400852499
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161136.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter turns from theoretical foundations to ideals of happiness. First, it focuses on what Aristippus, the mainstream Cyrenaics, and Annicereans say about education, virtue, and happiness. ...
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This chapter turns from theoretical foundations to ideals of happiness. First, it focuses on what Aristippus, the mainstream Cyrenaics, and Annicereans say about education, virtue, and happiness. This analysis shows how their foundational beliefs support a vision of what it means to have a successful life. The chapter then addresses their formulations of the ethical end, where Anniceris appears to have introduced a position that is strikingly unusual in ancient Greek ethics. Happiness is not the end, he says, nor is there any single end for the whole of life. Rather, each action has its own particular end. The chapter attempts a sympathetic interpretation of this innovation, yet acknowledges the problems it creates for other areas of Cyrenaic theory.Less
This chapter turns from theoretical foundations to ideals of happiness. First, it focuses on what Aristippus, the mainstream Cyrenaics, and Annicereans say about education, virtue, and happiness. This analysis shows how their foundational beliefs support a vision of what it means to have a successful life. The chapter then addresses their formulations of the ethical end, where Anniceris appears to have introduced a position that is strikingly unusual in ancient Greek ethics. Happiness is not the end, he says, nor is there any single end for the whole of life. Rather, each action has its own particular end. The chapter attempts a sympathetic interpretation of this innovation, yet acknowledges the problems it creates for other areas of Cyrenaic theory.
Fred Feldman
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- August 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199265169
- eISBN:
- 9780191601385
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019926516X.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Presents some typical textbook formulations of hedonism. Shows that they are unacceptable as formulations of the view—they fail to state the intended view in a coherent and consistent way. A simple ...
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Presents some typical textbook formulations of hedonism. Shows that they are unacceptable as formulations of the view—they fail to state the intended view in a coherent and consistent way. A simple form of sensory hedonism—‘Default Hedonism’—is then presented. This formulation does not have the defects of typical textbook formulations. Default Hedonism provides a starting point for all the other forms of hedonism to be discussed in the book. Concludes with a somewhat speculative discussion of the hedonism of Aristippus.Less
Presents some typical textbook formulations of hedonism. Shows that they are unacceptable as formulations of the view—they fail to state the intended view in a coherent and consistent way. A simple form of sensory hedonism—‘Default Hedonism’—is then presented. This formulation does not have the defects of typical textbook formulations. Default Hedonism provides a starting point for all the other forms of hedonism to be discussed in the book. Concludes with a somewhat speculative discussion of the hedonism of Aristippus.
David Sedley
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198777250
- eISBN:
- 9780191823015
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198777250.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
Eudaimonia, happiness, is a property of a whole life, not of some portion of it. What can this mean for hedonists? For Epicurus, it is made possible by the mind’s capacity to enjoy one’s whole life ...
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Eudaimonia, happiness, is a property of a whole life, not of some portion of it. What can this mean for hedonists? For Epicurus, it is made possible by the mind’s capacity to enjoy one’s whole life from any temporal viewpoint: to relive past pleasures and enjoy future ones in anticipation, importantly including confidence in a serene closure. Enjoying your life is like enjoying a day as a whole, not least its sunset. Although pleasure is increased by greater duration (contrary to a more favoured reading), and premature death therefore better avoided, the finitude of human life as such does not lessen its value, and even a premature death need not prevent a life’s being enjoyed as ‘complete’. In this chapter, the above interpretation is documented, explained, and contextualized in terms of Epicurus’ diametrical opposition to his contemporaries, the Cyrenaics.Less
Eudaimonia, happiness, is a property of a whole life, not of some portion of it. What can this mean for hedonists? For Epicurus, it is made possible by the mind’s capacity to enjoy one’s whole life from any temporal viewpoint: to relive past pleasures and enjoy future ones in anticipation, importantly including confidence in a serene closure. Enjoying your life is like enjoying a day as a whole, not least its sunset. Although pleasure is increased by greater duration (contrary to a more favoured reading), and premature death therefore better avoided, the finitude of human life as such does not lessen its value, and even a premature death need not prevent a life’s being enjoyed as ‘complete’. In this chapter, the above interpretation is documented, explained, and contextualized in terms of Epicurus’ diametrical opposition to his contemporaries, the Cyrenaics.
Mario Citroni
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198724728
- eISBN:
- 9780191792250
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198724728.003.0012
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
For Horace, the achievement of happiness presupposes a rational selection of pleasures. Those who aim to find happiness in the unrestrained enjoyment of every pleasure are described as fool or mad. ...
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For Horace, the achievement of happiness presupposes a rational selection of pleasures. Those who aim to find happiness in the unrestrained enjoyment of every pleasure are described as fool or mad. But sometimes Horace seems to suggest that the fool may find a happiness of his own in the enjoyment of a pleasure whose vanity he does not understand. In Epistles 1.15, he confesses that luxury gives him pleasure, and provocatively proposes its enjoyment as true sapientia: the pleasure of luxury is an obvious truth, but, if theoretically admitted, it overturns the rational construction of ancient moral philosophy, and Horace here suggests the disturbing force of this point of view. In Epistles 2.2, the anecdote of a man who, while hallucinating, could experience pleasures (of aesthetic kind) more intense than those based on real experiences, proves that Horace’s ideas, and doubts, on pleasure, depend on Greek philosophical debates.Less
For Horace, the achievement of happiness presupposes a rational selection of pleasures. Those who aim to find happiness in the unrestrained enjoyment of every pleasure are described as fool or mad. But sometimes Horace seems to suggest that the fool may find a happiness of his own in the enjoyment of a pleasure whose vanity he does not understand. In Epistles 1.15, he confesses that luxury gives him pleasure, and provocatively proposes its enjoyment as true sapientia: the pleasure of luxury is an obvious truth, but, if theoretically admitted, it overturns the rational construction of ancient moral philosophy, and Horace here suggests the disturbing force of this point of view. In Epistles 2.2, the anecdote of a man who, while hallucinating, could experience pleasures (of aesthetic kind) more intense than those based on real experiences, proves that Horace’s ideas, and doubts, on pleasure, depend on Greek philosophical debates.
