Defining Pleasure for
Hedonism:
Lessons from Science
Dan Turton
Victoria University of Wellington
Plan
• Theory
– Classical/Quantitative/Value/Default/
Benthamite/Old Skool Hedonism
– Felt-Quality, Hedonic Tone theory of
pleasure
• Problem
– The heterogeneity problem
• Solution
– Pleasure feels good
– Scientific support for hedonic tone
theories
Classical Hedonism about
Well-Being
• Well-being
• Pleasure is the only
bearer of intrinsic
value in a life
• Opposite for pain
• Pleasure and pain
are sensations – they
have a felt quality
• NOT ‘folk hedonism’
Felt-Quality Theories of
Pleasure
• Distinctive Feeling theories
• Hedonic Tone theories
• Every feeling/sensation has a valence
– Positive, neutral or negative
• Which affects well-being
correspondingly
– Improves, doesn’t change or worsens
• Note: the hedonic tone is
felt/experienced
The Heterogeneity Problem
• Henry Sidgwick (1907):
– There is no common ‘felt’ feature
in diverse pleasurable experiences
• E.g. sex vs. schadenfraude
• So, Felt-Quality theories were
largely abandoned
• The value was taken out of the
sensation
– Attitudinal pleasures
– Motivational theories of pleasure
– Preference-satisfaction accounts
The Kind of Solution Required
• Unify pleasure’s diversity
• Is useful for Hedonism
– Is obviously good in itself
• Is compatible with folk concept of
pleasure
• Is compatible with best science
• Is useful for Hedonistic
Utilitarianism
– Is theoretically measurable and interpersonally comparable
Motivational Theories of
Pleasure – (MTP)
• Sidgwick, Brandt, Alston, Carson
• Heathwood:
– A sensation is a sensory pleasure iff it is
contemporaneously desired for its own sake
– But, not everything that is desired is a
sensory pleasure
• Two problems
1) How do we distinguish between pleasures
and non-pleasures?
2) No role for pleasure in explaining
motivation!?!
Feldman’s Attitudinal Pleasure
• Sensory pleasure =
feeling “mmmmmm”/good
– Intrinsically worthless
• Attitudinal pleasure =
being pleased about
something/enjoying it
– The only thing of intrinsic
value
• E.g. the happy accident
victim
Assessing Attitudinal Pleasure
• Unifies pleasure’s diversity
• Is useful for Hedonism
• Is compatible with folk
concept of pleasure
?
?
• Is compatible with best
science
• Is useful for Hedonistic
Utilitarianism
?
?
Recent Findings in Science 1
• “Pleasure is never merely a sensation”
– Berridge & Kringelbach 2008, p459
•
•
•
•
Reward = wanting liking & learning
Wanting and liking are dissociable
Wanting by itself seems a-pleasurable
Liking by itself seems pleasurable
Behavioural Liking & Disliking
Causing Ratty Pleasure (‘Liking’)
Recent Findings in Science 2
• The ‘liking’ circuitry uses opioids,
cannabinoids & benzodiazepines
• The brain mechanisms for fundamental
pleasures are probably the same for
higher pleasures
• All experiences are coded with
hedonic gloss
• Sometimes we become aware of this
From Sensation to Subjective
Pleasure
Sensory
input
Sense
organs
?????????????:
Conscious
experience of
pleasure
Primary
sensory
cortices:
Cortical
representations
created
Posterior
OFC:
Multimodal
integration
Mid-anterior OFC:
Made available for
subjective
hedonic
experience
Lateral anterior OFC:
Influences behaviour
Anterior
OFC:
Reward
value
assigned
Medial anterior OFC:
Stored for learning
My Solution
• A Hedonic Tone theory
• A scientifically grounded version of
The Feels Good Theory of pleasure
• Pleasure (enjoyment) = Being aware of
+ve hedonic gloss
• Pain (suffering) = Being aware of -ve
hedonic gloss
• Being aware
• Hedons
– Duration
– Felt Intensity (awareness * intensity)
Assessing My Simple Pleasure
• Unifies pleasure’s diversity
• Is useful for Hedonism
• Is compatible with folk
concept of pleasure
• Is compatible with best
science
• Is useful for Hedonistic
Utilitarianism
Recap
• The Problem
• Feldman’s solution:
– Attitudinal pleasure
• My solution
– A Hedonic Tone theory
– Pleasure (enjoyment) = Being aware of
positive hedonic gloss
– Pain (suffering) = Being aware of negative
hedonic gloss