Hedonism - What is well-being

What does it mean for life to go BETTER or WORSE?

evaluation depends on determining what well-being IS

Well-being -

concerned w/ what is non-instrumentally or instrinsically & ultimately good for a person

• a matter for how well life goes for the person living it

• a kind of VALUE

Prudiental Value

what is “good for “ you

• part of well-being

Hedonism

the view that only pleasure has prudential value & only pain prudential disavlue

Hedonism - MORE FORMALLY

1. All & only pleasure is (non-instrumentally) good for us

2. All & only pain is (non-instrumentally) bad for us

3. A person’s overall level of well-being is determined solely by the balance of pleasure & pain

Pain is only ever a means…

(instrumental) to some ultimate pleasure

Cases & Correlation - Modus ponens

1. Paradigm cases of lives high in well-being all have high hedonic levels

2. If the paradigm cases of lives high in well-being all have high hedonism levels, then hedonism is true

3. THEREFORE, hedonism is true

ERRORED b/c…

confuses correlation & connection

Motivation - modus ponens

1. All human action aims to maximize well-being (ex: self-interest)

2. The agents pleasure & pain are the only things capable of motivating them

3. THEREFORE, hedonism is true

BOTH premises problematic b/c…

Not everything we do is motivated by self-interest - not only motivated by pleasure & pain

Hedonism - a _____ _____ theory …

Mental State Theory

• experience of pain & pleasure entirely in the mind

The Experience Machine

Trudy - reality, actually living it

Flora - hooked up to a machine THINKING she’s living it

If pleasure matters, then so would ________

reality

Reality mattering would mean…

reality has an independent value - could matter if the experience is real or not

Problem for Humans

what FEELS good (pleasure) vs. what IS good (real)

Status Quo Biase

the tendency to prefer current affairs

• psychologically resistent to change

Debunking Argument

aims to show that the source of belief is intelligence

Debunking Argument FORMAT

1. Your belief that J stems from process P

2. Beliefs that stem from process P are illegitemate

3. THEREFORE, your belief that J is illegitemate

The reason we prefer reality over machine…

we value real things - evolved this prefarence b/c real things have SURVIVAL VALUE

Programmed by _____ to think realities better

NATURE