Editing Hedonism (section)

=== Pleasure and pain ===
{{main|Pleasure|Pain}}
[[File:Bacchante by Frederick William MacMonnies 1894 Brooklyn Museum.jpg|thumb|upright=.6|alt=Photo of statue ''Bacchante and Infant Faun''|''[[Bacchante and Infant Faun]]'' by [[Frederick William MacMonnies]], 1894]]
Pleasure and pain are fundamental experiences about what is attractive and aversive, influencing how people feel, think, and act.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Pallies|2021|pp=887–888}} | {{harvnb|Katz|2016|loc=Lead section}} | {{harvnb|Johnson|2009|pp=704–705}} }}</ref> They play a central role in all forms of hedonism.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Weijers|loc=Lead section}} | {{harvnb|Feldman|2001|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=KfeOAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA662 662]}} }}</ref> Both pleasure and pain come in degrees corresponding to their intensity. They are typically understood as a continuum ranging from positive degrees through a neutral point to negative degrees.<ref>{{harvnb|Alston|2006|loc=§ Demarcation of the Topic}}</ref> However, some hedonists reject the idea that pleasure and pain form a symmetric pair and suggest instead that avoiding pain is more important than producing pleasure.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Shriver|2014|pp=135–137}} | {{harvnb|Luper|2009|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ccv8A385ZYAC&pg=PA102 102]}} }}</ref>

The nature of pleasure and pain is disputed and affects the plausibility of various versions of hedonism. In everyday language, these concepts are often understood in a narrow sense associated with specific phenomena, like the pleasure of food and sex or the pain of an injury.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Weijers|loc=§ 4b. Pleasure as Sensation, § 4d. Pleasure as Pro-Attitude}} | {{harvnb|Katz|2016|loc=Lead section}} | {{harvnb|Katz|2016a|loc=§ Note 1}} }}</ref> However, hedonists usually take a wider perspective in which pleasure and pain cover any positive or negative experiences. In this broad sense, anything that feels good is a pleasure, including the joy of watching a sunset, whereas anything that feels bad is a pain, including the sorrow of losing a loved one.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Pallies|2021|pp=887–888}} | {{harvnb|Feldman|2001|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=KfeOAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA663 663–668]}} | {{harvnb|Katz|2016|loc=Lead section}} | {{harvnb|Alston|2006|loc=§ Demarcation of the Topic}} }}</ref> A traditionally influential position says that pleasure and pain are specific bodily sensations, similar to the sensations of hot and cold. A more common view in contemporary philosophy holds that pleasure and pain are attitudes of attraction or aversion toward objects.{{efn|In this context the term "pro-attitude" is also used.<ref>{{harvnb|Weijers|loc=§ 4b. Pleasure as Sensation}}</ref>}} This view implies that they do not have a specific location in the body and do not arise in isolation since they are always directed at an object that people enjoy or suffer.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Feldman|2001|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=KfeOAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA663 663–668]}} | {{harvnb|Pallies|2021|pp=887–888}} | {{harvnb|Weijers|loc=§ 4b. Pleasure as Sensation, § 4d. Pleasure as Pro-Attitude}} }}</ref>

==== Measurement ====
Both philosophers and psychologists are interested in methods of measuring pleasure and pain to guide [[decision-making]] and gain a deeper understanding of their causes. A common approach is to use self-report [[questionnaire]]s in which people are asked to quantify how pleasant or unpleasant an experience is. For example, some questionnaires use a nine-point scale from -4 for the most unpleasant experiences, to +4 for the most pleasant ones. Some methods rely on memory and ask individuals to retrospectively assess their experiences. A different approach is for individuals to evaluate their experiences while they are happening to avoid [[Cognitive bias|biases]] and inaccuracies introduced by memory.<ref name="auto">{{multiref | {{harvnb|Alston|2006|loc=§ The Measurement of Pleasure}} | {{harvnb|Johnson|2009|pp=706–707}} | {{harvnb|Bartoshuk|2014|pp=91–93}} | {{harvnb|Lazari-Radek|2024|pp=51–58}} }}</ref>

In either form, the measurement of pleasure and pain poses various challenges. As a highly [[Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy)|subjective]] phenomenon, it is difficult to establish a standardized metric. Moreover, asking people to rate their experiences using an artificially constructed scale may not accurately reflect their subjective experiences. A closely related problem concerns comparisons between individuals since different people may use the scales differently and thus arrive at different values even if they had similar experiences.<ref name="auto"/> [[Neuroscience|Neuroscientists]] avoid some of these challenges by using [[neuroimaging]] techniques such as [[PET scans]] and [[fMRI]]. However, this approach comes with new difficulties of its own since the neurological basis of happiness is not yet fully understood.<ref>{{harvnb|Suardi|Sotgiu|Costa|Cauda|2016|pp=383–385}}</ref>

Based on the idea that individual experiences of pleasure and pain can be quantified, [[Jeremy Bentham]] proposed the [[hedonistic calculus]] as a method to combine various episodes to arrive at their total contribution to happiness. This makes it possible to quantitatively compare different courses of action based on the experiences they produce to choose the course with the highest overall contribution to happiness. Bentham considered several factors for each pleasurable experience: its intensity and duration, the likelihood that it occurs, its temporal distance, the likelihood that it causes further experiences of pleasure and pain, and the number of people affected. Some simplified versions of the hedonic calculus focus primarily on what is intrinsically valuable to a person and only consider two factors: intensity and duration.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Feldman|2001|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=KfeOAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA666 666]}} | {{harvnb|Bowie|Simon|1998|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rhbSquEOBHcC&pg=PA25 25]}} | {{harvnb|Weijers|loc=§ 3a. Bentham}} | {{harvnb|Heathwood|2013|loc=§ What Determines the Intrinsic Value of a Pleasure or a Pain?}} | {{harvnb|Woodward|2017|loc=Lead section, § Dimensions of the Hedonistic Calculus}} }}</ref>