Pleasure Vs. HappinessSo, being a psychological egoistic hedonist, I am just sure that a person can act and he will only act in a way to achieve his own self-interest. And this self-interest is nothing more then pleasure. The pleasure he is looking for will be one of the three possible: carnal, intellectual or the ultimate. The higher level pleasures he is looking for, the more general happiness he is going to find. In other words, the person who looks for only carnal pleasures may find some happiness, but that happiness is going to be not as big as the happiness of the one who is looking for an intellectual pleasure more then for a carnal one and finds it. And the person who, in his turn looks mostly for intellectual pleasures is going to find more happiness, but of course not as much as the person who is in search of the ultimate pleasures. Certainly, it is quite possible, for a person to looks for ultimate pleasures conforming to the intellectual or carnal ones. For instance, let's assume that taking care of your body and soul is the "right" things to do. (As defining of the “right “is not among the aims of this paper we can use this as an axiom, without any need to prove. ) So, if a person finds pleasure and satisfaction in eating right and making jerks, then he is, actually, in a way to find both a carnal and ultimate pleasures. And this is, probably, going to provide the highest level of happiness. |