![]() Repentance is letting go of the pleasure of sin in order to have the pleasure of God. For those living in constant fear, pain, or misery, perhaps the authenticity of their experience matters less than some simple moments of bliss.If you want to experience new levels of pleasure in Christ, you must be willing to let go of all inferior pleasures. It’s easier to value hard work and authenticity if you’re confident your life will be pretty pleasurable. But Nozick’s argument depends on people’s lives being of a certain quality. Nozick thought most people would choose not to plug into the machine – proving there was more to life than pleasure and pain. Plus, although you’d feel as though you were experiencing amazing things, you’d be floating in a vat, feeding through a tube. ![]() But if you plugged in, you could never unplug. It would respond to your specific desires – you could be a rock star, philosopher or space cowboy depending on what was most pleasurable. Imagine a machine that can plug into your brain and simulate the most pleasurable life you could imagine. He developed a thought experiment called the experience machine. The philosopher Robert Nozick wanted people to feel the pinch of measuring life only based on pain and pleasure. That’s where people tend to be more hesitant. What makes hedonism unique is the claim only pleasure and pain matter. That’s not enough to make you a hedonist. Most people will agree pleasure and pain are important for determining the value of something. ![]() (With evidence to suggest pigs can orgasm for up to fifteen minutes, Mill’s account feels a little incomplete). “It is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied”, he said. Although sensory pleasures might be the most intense, it was fitting for higher order beings – like humans – to enjoy higher order pleasures – like art. John Stuart Mill believed in a hierarchy of pleasures. Best not to love them to begin with, he suggests. If we live a rich, complex lifestyle we risk suffering more when it ends. Though his name has become synonymous with indulgence – “Epicurean holidays”, a food app called “Epicurious” – he advocated finding pleasure in a simple life with a bland diet. For Epicurus, the ancient Greek philosopher, pleasure was the absence of pain. There are different perspectives on what pleasure and pain really mean. ![]() ![]() Where utilitarianism says ethical actions are ones that maximise the overall good of a society, hedonism takes it a step further by defining ‘good’ as pleasure. Hedonism is closely associated with utilitarianism. Hedonism is a philosophy that regards pleasure and happiness as the most beneficial outcome of an action. ![]()
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January 2023
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