I develop a distinction between two types of psychological hedonism. Inferential hedonism (or "I-hedonism") holds that each person only has ultimate desires regarding his or her own hedonic states (pleasure and pain). Reinforcement hedonism (or "R-hedonism") holds that each person's ultimate desires, whatever their contents are, are differentially reinforced in that person's cognitive system on...

Hedonism is the view that the Good Life is the pleasant life. The central aim of this book is to show that, when carefully and charitably interpreted, certain forms of hedonism yield plausible evaluations of human lives. The forms I defend understand pleasure as intrinsic attitudinal pleasure. I reject all forms of sensory hedonism. I defend my preferred forms of hedonism against a barrage of c...

Francis Hutcheson’s theory of value is often characterized as a precursor to the qualitative hedonism of John Stuart Mill. The interpretation of Mill as a qualitative hedonist has come under fire recently; some have argued that he is, in fact, a hedonist of no variety at all.1 Others have argued that his hedonism is as non-qualitative as Bentham’s.2 The purpose of this essay is not to criticall...

The article draws primarily from the behavioral findings (mainly psychiatric and psychological observations) and points out the important relationships between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and time orientation. Specifically, the authors argue that there is a significant overlap between the symptoms of ADHD and Present Hedonism. Present Hedonism is defined by Zimbardo...

David Hume’s value theory—in particular, his theory of prudential value or self-interest—is rarely investigated in any depth. Though he makes a number of claims about what is in someone’s interest (including his discussion of the prudential value of the virtues in the second Enquiry1), there is very little material in Hume’s philosophic writing that yields a clear statement of his theory of wha...

Iron-deficient young women who are at risk of anaemia should be advised to eat red meat, a good food source of iron. However, red meat is known to elicit negative attitudes among young women, which could lead to low meat consumption. Several factors can contribute to meat attitudes. We therefore hypothesised that a good predictor of attitudes towards meat could be a positive affective component...

In this paper, I reconstruct Robert Nozick’s experience machine objection to hedonism about wellbeing. I then explain and brief ly discuss the most important recent criticisms that have been made of it. Finally, I question the conventional wisdom that the experience machine, while it neatly disposes of hedonism, poses no problem for desire-based theories of well-being.

C5.3.1 Random slope model .................................................................... 23 C5.3.2 Example of random slope for a continuous explanatory variable: allowing the relationship between hedonism and age to differ across countries ............. 25 C5.3.3 Centring in a random slope model .................................................... 28 C5.3.4 Example of random slope for a d...