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 only by virtue of their association with hedonic states. I'll argue that accepting R-hedonism and rejecting I-hedonism provides a conciliatory position on the traditional altruism debate, and that it coheres well with the neuroscientist Anthony Dickinson's theory about the evolutionary function of hedonic states, the “hedonic interface theory.” Finally, I'll defend R-hedonism from potential objections.
...More
Book
Casagrande, Carla;
Vecchio, Silvana;
(2009)
Piacere e dolore: Materiali per una storia delle passioni nel Medioevo
(/isis/citation/CBB001020522/)
Thesis
Desmond, Laura;
(2011)
Disciplining Pleasure: The Erotic Science of the “Kamasutra”
(/isis/citation/CBB001567284/)
Article
Arenson, Kelly E.;
(2011)
Natural and Neutral States in Plato's Philebus
(/isis/citation/CBB001250011/)
Book
Rob Boddice;
(2017)
Pain: A Very Short Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB078010554/)
Article
Otniel E. Dror;
(2016)
Cold War “Super-Pleasure”: Insatiability, Self-Stimulation, and the Postwar Brain
(/isis/citation/CBB042765075/)
Article
Morawski, Jill G.;
St. Martin, Jenna;
(2011)
The Evolving Vocabulary of the Social Sciences: The Case of “Socialization”
(/isis/citation/CBB001033711/)
Article
Allocca, Nunzio;
(2017)
L’errore di Damasio: cervello, emozione e cognizione in Descartes
(/isis/citation/CBB952893823/)
Article
Wassmann, Claudia;
(2014)
“Picturesque Incisiveness”: Explaining the Celebrity of James's Theory of Emotion
(/isis/citation/CBB001420015/)
Book
Kandel, Eric R;
(2012)
The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present
(/isis/citation/CBB001201847/)
Article
Monica Riccio;
(2022)
Espressione delle emozioni, intelligenza artificiale, vacanza delle scienze umane
(/isis/citation/CBB994061050/)
Book
Jan Plamper;
(2017)
The History of Emotions: An Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB129658293/)
Book
Plamper, Jan;
Lazier, Benjamin;
(2012)
Fear: Across the Disciplines
(/isis/citation/CBB001450931/)
Book
Ruth Leys;
(2017)
The Ascent of Affect: Genealogy and Critique
(/isis/citation/CBB108209300/)
Article
Dr James Nikopoulos;
(2019)
Essay review: Why Can't Science Be More Like History: A Response to Ruth Leys' The Ascent of Affect. Genealogy and Critique
(/isis/citation/CBB041016576/)
Article
Budge, Gavin;
(2007)
Erasmus Darwin and the Poetics of William Wordsworth: “Excitement without the Application of Gross and Violent Stimulants”
(/isis/citation/CBB001032680/)
Book
Bok, Sissela;
(2010)
Exploring Happiness: From Aristotle to Brain Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001033741/)
Article
Adamson, Peter;
(2015)
Miskawayh on Pleasure
(/isis/citation/CBB001552255/)
Article
Christine Clavien;
Michel Chapuisat;
(2016)
The evolution of utility functions and psychological altruism
(/isis/citation/CBB212304865/)
Article
Armin W. Schulz;
(2016)
Altruism, egoism, or neither: A cognitive-efficiency-based evolutionary biological perspective on helping behavior
(/isis/citation/CBB460292144/)
Book
Boddice, Rob;
(2014)
Pain and Emotion in Modern History
(/isis/citation/CBB001202301/)
Be the first to comment!