Hedonism
hedonism is a theory that gives pleasure a central role. the simplest form of hedonism in ethics is ‘whatever causes pleasure is right’, even that simple version immediately runs into trouble.
pleasure for whom? average pleasure? is that the median or the mean? how can you make interpersonal comparisons of pleasure, anyway? or even cross-time comparisons for the same person? is that pleasure in the short term, or the long term?
another summary of hedonism, ‘pleasure is the highest good’ avoids some of these complexities, at the cost of not having clear, practical consequences.
