The term "hedonism" has ancient Greek roots. This is the teaching that the main purpose of earthly existence is to obtain pleasure. That is, from the point of view of hedonism, the highest benefit for a person is to live an easy, carefree life, getting maximum pleasure from all its aspects, and in every possible way to avoid everything unpleasant and painful.
How hedonism originated
According to Wikipedia, hedonism is a doctrine according to which a person should strive, first of all, to get pleasure from everything. what surrounds him. It is believed that the founder of hedonism was Aristippus, an ancient Greek philosopher who lived in 435-355. BC. He argued that a person's soul can be in two states: pleasure and pain. A happy person, according to Aristippus, is one who manages to have fun as often as possible. Moreover, this pleasure, first of all, should be physical, felt. For example, a person gets pleasure from delicious food and delicious drinks, from intimacy with a partner, from comfortable clothes, a hot bath, etc.
Mental pleasure (from a beautiful landscape, listening to music, watching a play, etc.) Aristippus put in a secondary place, although he recognized its importance.
The doctrine of hedonism was further developed in the writings of other philosophers, in particular, Epicurus. According to Epicurus, the highest happiness and pleasure in life can be obtained by getting rid of pain and suffering. But pain and suffering are often a natural consequence of excess, a lack of healthy moderation. For example, if you eat too much, you don't have to be surprised at digestive problems. Or if a person leads an too idle lifestyle, protecting himself from the slightest stress, he may have heart and joint problems as a result. Therefore, Epicurus called for reasonable moderation in everything.
The English philosopher and sociologist W. Bentan, who lived in the 18th-19th centuries, called such views of Epicurus hedonic prudence.
Is hedonism good or bad?
Is it hard to be a human hedonist? It is difficult to give an unambiguous answer to this question. On the one hand, a hedonist often behaves like an egoist, caring first of all about his own comforts and advantages. On the other hand, to some extent, selfishness is inherent in the absolute majority of people. After all, there are relatively few disinterested ascetics who are absolutely indifferent to questions of their own convenience and profit.
After all, what is wrong if a person strives to enjoy life? It is only important that this desire does not become too strong, does not turn into an obsession, forcing one to forget about honor, decency, the interests of other people. That is, in the case of hedonism, one must also try to adhere to a certain "golden mean". It is necessary to always remain human, listen to other people and not "go over their heads."