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Katja Maria Vogt, katjavogt.com, Columbia University
What is Hedonism? CAM conference on Pleasure and Pain in Classical Antiquity
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What is Hedonism?
Katja Maria Vogt, Columbia University
[Abstract] When philosophers speak of hedonism, they often do so with a dismissive tone.
This would imply that we know what we are talking about: what it is that is being
dismissed. And yet it is rather difficult to say what hedonism is. In antiquity, the very same
philosophers—notably Plato and Aristotle—who dismiss hedonism have a lot to say about
pleasure. I refer to the type of proposal that Plato and Aristotle entertain (in many
variations) as non-hedonist rather than anti-hedonist. I’m leaving space at the other end
of the spectrum. Others hate pleasure more forcefully than Plato and Aristotle do, and
consequently pay less attention to its workings. My paper sketches some of the main
moves on both sides, hedonism and non-hedonism. I’m aiming to show not just what
hedonism is, but also what it is about hedonism that one may accept even if, on the whole,
one rejects it. Along the way, I argue that the famous Bad Pleasure Problem—that pleasure
cannot be good because there are bad pleasures—is not the worst problem hedonists
encounter. Instead, the Nature of Pleasure Problem—the difficulties that arise when one
aims to say what pleasure is—are even greater.
The paper is part of my book project on Desiring the Good. A short version of it will be
part of the conference proceedings of Pleasure and Pain in Classical Antiquity.