What do you think?
Rate this book
The Philosophy of Pleasure
The experience of pleasure, alongside pain, is a primary element of human life. It rules our instincts and desires for food, sex and avoiding various forms of harm. Crucial to psychological and social well-being, it has preoccupied philosophers from Aristotle to John Stuart Mill and plays a fundamental role in moral and ethical theory, especially utilitarianism. More recently, it has become a central subject for psychologists, biologists and neuroscientists.
Yet it remains an elusive and deceptively difficult concept. What is pleasure? How does it differ from happiness? Should we value pleasure? Should we value only pleasure? Which theories of pleasure are most plausible? In this rigorous and comprehensive introduction to the topic, Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek unpacks and assesses these questions and many more,
The history of pleasure from ancient China, India and Greece to modern times Pleasure, sensation, feeling and consciousness What scientific research reveals about the nature of pleasure – can pleasure be measured scientifically? "Higher" and "lower" pleasures The relation between happiness and pleasure Pleasure and pain Pleasure and animals Pleasure as an ultimate good and the relation between pleasure and rationality. The Philosophy of An Introduction is essential reading for students of ethics and political philosophy, and also suitable for those studying related disciplines such as psychology, politics and sociology.
Yet it remains an elusive and deceptively difficult concept. What is pleasure? How does it differ from happiness? Should we value pleasure? Should we value only pleasure? Which theories of pleasure are most plausible? In this rigorous and comprehensive introduction to the topic, Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek unpacks and assesses these questions and many more,
The history of pleasure from ancient China, India and Greece to modern times Pleasure, sensation, feeling and consciousness What scientific research reveals about the nature of pleasure – can pleasure be measured scientifically? "Higher" and "lower" pleasures The relation between happiness and pleasure Pleasure and pain Pleasure and animals Pleasure as an ultimate good and the relation between pleasure and rationality. The Philosophy of An Introduction is essential reading for students of ethics and political philosophy, and also suitable for those studying related disciplines such as psychology, politics and sociology.
160 pages, Paperback
Published June 3, 2024
3 people are currently reading
79 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 24, 2025
“As a philosopher, I wanted to know what is the ultimate value and what we should do in order to achieve a good life… The goal of my research is to find out whether pleasure may be a good candidate for the ultimate good.”
The Philosophy of Pleasure (2024) by the moral philosopher Katarzyna De Lazari-Radek is an essential reading for students of ethics and political philosophy, and also suitable for those studying related disciplines such as psychology, politics and sociology.
This academic peer-reviewed book defends Hedonism as a theory of value by rebutting the philosophical objections against it and showing why it is the only intrinsic good in our universe. It also uses empirical evidence based on current neuroscience research to provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of what exactly is pleasure, how it should be defined, and how it can be measured scientifically.
The term “Hedonism” has a bad reputation as most people would associate it with a lifestyle that is based on sensory indulgences such as food, sex, and drugs. However, that is not what the term means in moral philosophy and hence, it’s a major misconception that should be clarified.
In fact, hedonism would claim that to maximise pleasure, your life should not consist of indulging in these three things as it would lead to lesser pleasures in the long run due to ‘hedonic adaptation,’ the ‘paradox of hedonism,’ and the fact that humans would require pleasure from a sufficiently diverse number of sources (family, friends, hobbies, goals, purpose, etc.) to experience greater pleasures in the long run. Reading this book would help clarify all of this.
Anyways, in moral philosophy, hedonism is a mental-state and value theory that claims that the only ultimate (i.e., intrinsic) good, that is good in itself, is pleasure, and the only ultimate evil, that is bad in itself, is suffering. It is one of the three theories of well-being—the other two being desire-satisfaction and objective list.
The core thesis of hedonism does not imply that there are no other values worth striving for. Hedonists can see value also in friendship, health, truth, trust, rights, autonomy, or having a virtuous character (kindness etc.). The difference is that they treat values other than pleasure and suffering as instrumental. That is, they consider them good/bad insofar as they contribute to pleasure, or to the reduction of suffering.
As such, hedonism is a philosophical theory of value that claims that pleasure is the only intrinsic good and all other candidates of good as merely instrumental.
In this book, Katarzyna begins with how historical figures have thought about pleasure, before moving on to the philosophy of hedonism—alongside objections to it and how hedonists can refute them—and then arriving at a philosophical definition of pleasure. Afterwhich, she explores the latest scientific findings in neuroscience to further conceptualise the nature of pleasure—including how pleasure can be observed in neural mechanisms (which differs from the mechanisms involved in desires) and also how to measure it.
After touching briefly on the pleasures of animals, Katarzyna then combines the philosophical and neuroscientific perspectives of pleasure and concludes with a definition of pleasure to best encapsulate its essence.
Katarzyna ultimately defines pleasure as “that feeling which, when experienced by rational beings, treated as a feeling, and detached from all other conditions and accompanying feelings, is apprehended by us as something worth our attention, effort, or desire; as something that is valuable to us, which we have reason to desire.”
To qualify the above definition, the statements below, quoted from the end of chapter 6 (alongside some additions by me), can be helpful.
1. Pleasure is a feeling [or a positive mental state that is experienced at the time of assessment]. It is not a sensation or an emotion or an attitude.
2. The feeling of pleasure is characterized by a specific quality, which can be described as a positive evaluation/liking/welcoming of a given experience, thoughts, memories, etc. When a rational being experiences the feeling that is pleasure there is the unique quality of something that is apprehended by rational beings as worthy of desire.
3. In humans beyond infancy, pleasure is a conscious phenomenon in the sense that we are usually aware of experiencing it, or at least can reflect upon it after the experience. However, since we do not want to say that non-human animals or human infants do not experience pleasure, it is good to understand consciousness more broadly as the reception and registration of external stimuli by a subject of experiences. [This means that human-infants and non-human animals are able to have that conscious experience of pleasure.]
4. Pleasures that are specific to humans (and possibly great apes, elephants, and other animals with advanced cognitive capacities), connected with self-awareness, self-reflection and cultural creation are produced by the same brain mechanisms as the pleasures we share with many other animals. Thus, neuroscience gives no support to the view that there is a qualitative difference between higher and lower pleasures, let alone to the normative view that the former are superior to the latter—a view held by John Stuart Mill.
5. Pleasure is commensurate with suffering understood as an experience characterized by a specific quality, namely our negative evaluation of a given stimulus.
Overall, this book is a 5/5 and has enhanced my understanding of the concept of pleasure, and hedonism as a theory of value, as well as my ability to defend the position when I discuss it with my peers (mostly Joshua HAHA). I deem it crucial for myself and everyone else to understand how we can determine what is the ultimate (intrinsic) good that we ought to promote. This would not only guide how we live our lives but also serve as a foundational basis for policies, economics, and the overarching goal of humanity’s existence.
In case you’re wondering why can’t there be more than one intrinsic good (a position known as pluralism), just know that you will run into tremendous issues as there would be no way to trade-off one good from the other when they conflict since they are non-commensurate. As mentioned, I must stress that claiming pleasure as the only intrinsic good does not mean that everything else has no value, it just means that those are of instrumental value.
I recommend reading this and also the book titled An Introduction to Utilitarianism: From Theory to Practice (2024) by Prof. Richard Chappell. That way, if you’re convinced by the arguments, you would be able to pair hedonism (a theory of well-being) with utilitarianism (a normative ethical theory), and be able to defend the ethical position of hedonistic utilitarianism which aims to maximise the net balance of pleasure over suffering in the world. Of course, I would hope then you would apply the normative ethical theory into practical ethics, by using it to assess and address social and environmental challenges that the world faces, be it on a micro (individual) level or a macro level.
As a hedonist, I take the research of happiness and well-being by psychologists, neurologists, sociologists, and philosophers very seriously (and I think any rational person should too). Apart from taking pleasure in reading and learning from the research on it, I also apply what I learn to my life by prioritising aspects that have been shown to lead to greater well-being for oneself and those around me so that I live a pleasurable life. More than that, I can then decide what to do with my life so that I can create the most pleasure I can for others around me, or reduce their suffering, which gives me a fulfilling purpose for my existence.
For anyone interested in the recent psychological research regarding the measurement of pleasure (i.e., subjective well-being; SWB), the report by Happier Lives Institute which is less than 20 pages covers the literature sufficiently to show you how pleasure, albeit a subjective experience, can be measured scientifically and objectively.
Link to report:
https://www.happierlivesinstitute.org...
For anyone interested in what you should focus on in your life to be happy, you can look at the World Happiness Report or, for greater relevance if you are a Singaporean like me, at Professor Tambyah’s research on Well-Being and Happiness in Singapore: Beyond Economic Prosperity using national data, a free open access academic book.
Link to World Happiness Report:
https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2024...
Link to Well-being and Happiness in Singapore:
https://www.routledge.com/Happiness-a...
The Philosophy of Pleasure (2024) by the moral philosopher Katarzyna De Lazari-Radek is an essential reading for students of ethics and political philosophy, and also suitable for those studying related disciplines such as psychology, politics and sociology.
This academic peer-reviewed book defends Hedonism as a theory of value by rebutting the philosophical objections against it and showing why it is the only intrinsic good in our universe. It also uses empirical evidence based on current neuroscience research to provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of what exactly is pleasure, how it should be defined, and how it can be measured scientifically.
The term “Hedonism” has a bad reputation as most people would associate it with a lifestyle that is based on sensory indulgences such as food, sex, and drugs. However, that is not what the term means in moral philosophy and hence, it’s a major misconception that should be clarified.
In fact, hedonism would claim that to maximise pleasure, your life should not consist of indulging in these three things as it would lead to lesser pleasures in the long run due to ‘hedonic adaptation,’ the ‘paradox of hedonism,’ and the fact that humans would require pleasure from a sufficiently diverse number of sources (family, friends, hobbies, goals, purpose, etc.) to experience greater pleasures in the long run. Reading this book would help clarify all of this.
Anyways, in moral philosophy, hedonism is a mental-state and value theory that claims that the only ultimate (i.e., intrinsic) good, that is good in itself, is pleasure, and the only ultimate evil, that is bad in itself, is suffering. It is one of the three theories of well-being—the other two being desire-satisfaction and objective list.
The core thesis of hedonism does not imply that there are no other values worth striving for. Hedonists can see value also in friendship, health, truth, trust, rights, autonomy, or having a virtuous character (kindness etc.). The difference is that they treat values other than pleasure and suffering as instrumental. That is, they consider them good/bad insofar as they contribute to pleasure, or to the reduction of suffering.
As such, hedonism is a philosophical theory of value that claims that pleasure is the only intrinsic good and all other candidates of good as merely instrumental.
In this book, Katarzyna begins with how historical figures have thought about pleasure, before moving on to the philosophy of hedonism—alongside objections to it and how hedonists can refute them—and then arriving at a philosophical definition of pleasure. Afterwhich, she explores the latest scientific findings in neuroscience to further conceptualise the nature of pleasure—including how pleasure can be observed in neural mechanisms (which differs from the mechanisms involved in desires) and also how to measure it.
After touching briefly on the pleasures of animals, Katarzyna then combines the philosophical and neuroscientific perspectives of pleasure and concludes with a definition of pleasure to best encapsulate its essence.
Katarzyna ultimately defines pleasure as “that feeling which, when experienced by rational beings, treated as a feeling, and detached from all other conditions and accompanying feelings, is apprehended by us as something worth our attention, effort, or desire; as something that is valuable to us, which we have reason to desire.”
To qualify the above definition, the statements below, quoted from the end of chapter 6 (alongside some additions by me), can be helpful.
1. Pleasure is a feeling [or a positive mental state that is experienced at the time of assessment]. It is not a sensation or an emotion or an attitude.
2. The feeling of pleasure is characterized by a specific quality, which can be described as a positive evaluation/liking/welcoming of a given experience, thoughts, memories, etc. When a rational being experiences the feeling that is pleasure there is the unique quality of something that is apprehended by rational beings as worthy of desire.
3. In humans beyond infancy, pleasure is a conscious phenomenon in the sense that we are usually aware of experiencing it, or at least can reflect upon it after the experience. However, since we do not want to say that non-human animals or human infants do not experience pleasure, it is good to understand consciousness more broadly as the reception and registration of external stimuli by a subject of experiences. [This means that human-infants and non-human animals are able to have that conscious experience of pleasure.]
4. Pleasures that are specific to humans (and possibly great apes, elephants, and other animals with advanced cognitive capacities), connected with self-awareness, self-reflection and cultural creation are produced by the same brain mechanisms as the pleasures we share with many other animals. Thus, neuroscience gives no support to the view that there is a qualitative difference between higher and lower pleasures, let alone to the normative view that the former are superior to the latter—a view held by John Stuart Mill.
5. Pleasure is commensurate with suffering understood as an experience characterized by a specific quality, namely our negative evaluation of a given stimulus.
Overall, this book is a 5/5 and has enhanced my understanding of the concept of pleasure, and hedonism as a theory of value, as well as my ability to defend the position when I discuss it with my peers (mostly Joshua HAHA). I deem it crucial for myself and everyone else to understand how we can determine what is the ultimate (intrinsic) good that we ought to promote. This would not only guide how we live our lives but also serve as a foundational basis for policies, economics, and the overarching goal of humanity’s existence.
In case you’re wondering why can’t there be more than one intrinsic good (a position known as pluralism), just know that you will run into tremendous issues as there would be no way to trade-off one good from the other when they conflict since they are non-commensurate. As mentioned, I must stress that claiming pleasure as the only intrinsic good does not mean that everything else has no value, it just means that those are of instrumental value.
I recommend reading this and also the book titled An Introduction to Utilitarianism: From Theory to Practice (2024) by Prof. Richard Chappell. That way, if you’re convinced by the arguments, you would be able to pair hedonism (a theory of well-being) with utilitarianism (a normative ethical theory), and be able to defend the ethical position of hedonistic utilitarianism which aims to maximise the net balance of pleasure over suffering in the world. Of course, I would hope then you would apply the normative ethical theory into practical ethics, by using it to assess and address social and environmental challenges that the world faces, be it on a micro (individual) level or a macro level.
As a hedonist, I take the research of happiness and well-being by psychologists, neurologists, sociologists, and philosophers very seriously (and I think any rational person should too). Apart from taking pleasure in reading and learning from the research on it, I also apply what I learn to my life by prioritising aspects that have been shown to lead to greater well-being for oneself and those around me so that I live a pleasurable life. More than that, I can then decide what to do with my life so that I can create the most pleasure I can for others around me, or reduce their suffering, which gives me a fulfilling purpose for my existence.
For anyone interested in the recent psychological research regarding the measurement of pleasure (i.e., subjective well-being; SWB), the report by Happier Lives Institute which is less than 20 pages covers the literature sufficiently to show you how pleasure, albeit a subjective experience, can be measured scientifically and objectively.
Link to report:
https://www.happierlivesinstitute.org...
For anyone interested in what you should focus on in your life to be happy, you can look at the World Happiness Report or, for greater relevance if you are a Singaporean like me, at Professor Tambyah’s research on Well-Being and Happiness in Singapore: Beyond Economic Prosperity using national data, a free open access academic book.
Link to World Happiness Report:
https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2024...
Link to Well-being and Happiness in Singapore:
https://www.routledge.com/Happiness-a...
Displaying 1 of 1 review