Defining Pleasure for Hedonism: Lessons from Science

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Defining Pleasure for Hedonism Lessons from
Science

• Dan Turton
• Victoria University of Wellington

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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

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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

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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, doesnt change or worsens
• Note the hedonic tone is felt/experienced

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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

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The Kind of Solution Required

• Unify pleasures 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 inter-personally
  comparable

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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!?!

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Feldmans 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

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Assessing Attitudinal Pleasure

• Unifies pleasures diversity
• Is useful for Hedonism
• Is compatible with folk concept of pleasure
• Is compatible with best science
• Is useful for Hedonistic Utilitarianism

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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

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Behavioural Liking Disliking
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Causing Ratty Pleasure (Liking)
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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

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From Sensation to Subjective Pleasure
Sensory input
Primary sensory cortices Cortical
represen-tations created
Sense organs
Posterior OFC Multi-modal integration
Lateral anterior OFC Influences behaviour
Anterior OFC Reward value assigned
Mid-anterior OFC Made available for subjective
hedonic experience
????????????? Conscious experience of pleasure
Medial anterior OFC Stored for learning
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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)

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Assessing My Simple Pleasure

• Unifies pleasures diversity
• Is useful for Hedonism
• Is compatible with folk concept of pleasure
• Is compatible with best science
• Is useful for Hedonistic Utilitarianism

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Recap

• The Problem
• Feldmans 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