Pleasure Principles

The following program is a result of my own philosophical reflection upon, and distillation of, Ancient Cyrenaic material, augmented by the later aesthetic developments and creative reinterpretations of Walter Pater. My personal approach to philosophy proceeds ever with an eye towards practical application. The theory or idea which does not inform somehow one’s attitude and actions is idle — of no consequence. As a result, this summary is not presented as rigorous theory, but as a pragmatic code informing outlook and behavior. I have cannibalized content from prior writing in order to create this current pastiche, and am liable to update its content as my understanding evolves. As always, all credit for originality properly belongs to past figures, from whose efforts I pilfer.

Pleasure Principles:

Maintain complete fidelity to the subjective experience of immediate sensory impressions as the sole origin and criteria of knowledge. These affections vouch for themselves, and they do so inwardly, unmistakably, truly, and incorrigibly. Accordingly, we have inferior epistemic access to other alleged sources for guidance of action and care. This focus induces a drily practical purgative skepticism, justifying withdrawal of interest, and suspension of judgement, regarding speculative metaphysical theorizing about what may lie beyond or behind experiential phenomena. With the individual for our standard, we are unable to wholly accept the valuations of others without personal verification, foundational for intellectual integrity. 

Only the feelings of pleasure and pain possess monadic qualities of attraction and repulsion, respectively. Pleasure is self-evidently choice-worthy, pain is self-evidently avoidance-worthy, and no other experiences possess these monadic qualities. We organize our lives around the life-guiding truth of pleasure and pain. The highest good is my own pleasure, and the end is to live pleasantly. All other goods are of instrumental value. The maximal achievement, appreciation, and enjoyment of pleasurable experiences across a lifetime constitutes happiness. The pursuit of pleasure is balanced with maintaining freedom from mental distress and bodily pain. Perception of the world is made in terms of opportunities for enjoyment, and risks of suffering, informing our hedonic calculus in the economy of pleasure.

The feeling of pleasure, like all affections, occurs only while it is being experienced — it is unitemporal. The present alone is truly real, and we yield completely to its improvement. We telescope our focus of concern and care to the present moment as a spiritual exercise, prudential rule of thumb, and emotional attitude — not an ontological straight-jacket. We exclude all embarrassment alike of regret for the past and calculation for the future, as far as possible, and train ourselves to focus on what is before us, not what is absent. We thereby diminish discomfort and become more receptive to present pleasures. Pleasant living is to be accomplished within each individual unit of time. Due to the greater ability to affect the present moment, we put less faith in painstaking long-term planning than in our ability to adapt to circumstances.

Education shapes our character by training tranquility, social mastery, and connoisseurship. In order to achieve happiness, we must transform our behavior and attitude so we can rationally secure, maintain, and enjoy pleasurable experiences, while minimising negative consequences. This involves transforming slavish characters into free ones by cultivating self-possession/-mastery, the capacity to speak with sophistication, and proper philosophical understanding. Education thereby removes impediments to the purest and most immediate reception of pleasurable experiences, including anxiety, regret, and unjustified (merely conventional) compunctions. Training also includes cultivation of appetite and the refinement of its satisfaction, increasing capacity for appreciation. We skilfully cultivate an earthen character, with virile consciousness of the sentiments of the body and the affections our flesh defines — a poetic apprehension of experience united with something of personal ambition and self-assertion. This opens an aesthetic dimension of pleasure-seeking. We regard all objects, works of art, the fairer forms of nature and human life, engaging personalities, as powers or forces producing pleasurable sensations, each of a more or less peculiar or unique kind. 

To indulge in various pleasures without being worsted, we must exercise self-control and train certain excellencies. Temperance involves disdaining excess desires and curbing dependency on any particular allures, as the sentimental and practical application of the precept of true value. What really matters is simply to avoid pain and distress, and to experience some sort of pleasure. Excess is relative to what is actually good: pleasure. This does not exclude luxury, but we avoid becoming attached to specific sources of pleasure and reduce our desires accordingly. Practical reason involves applying the rational account of what is good and what is bad to particular situations, and choosing correctly — this also provides a sound foundation for rhetoric. Adaptability signifies that we possess the ability to harmonize with place, time, and role, and perform harmoniously in any circumstance. Paradoxically, it is only a person of firm character and profound insight who can be so malleable, adapting comfortably to every situation. Confidence means feeling comfortable rather than anxious or fearful in unknown or threatening situations. Sociability denotes the ability to get along with any sort of person whatsoever, and to do so without anxiety. This social confidence is based on the understanding both cognitively and emotionally that all we need is to avoid pain and discover some modicum of pleasure. We not need to impress anyone, since we are not after anything they can provide which we could not procure for ourselves. Just about every situation presents opportunities for enjoyment, which encourages simple accommodation of oneself to one’s company and situation at any given moment. Suavity involves training responsiveness, versatility, and adroitness. The wise man is comfortable in any situation, and adroit enough to turn it to his advantage. He speaks well, with knowledge and sophistication, possessing charm, humor, and quick-wittedness.

Friendships, familial relationships, and romantic partnerships are entered into or continued for self-interested motives due to the pleasures they command. Natural affection follows and we become pleased seeing those we care about happy, motivating us to help ensure their well-being. Magnanimity and concern are important interpersonal qualities. Justice is the prudent course of action because of the pleasant social consequences which follow. This means being generally fair, meritorious, and law-abiding in our dealings with others. We have an empathetic distaste for causing or witnessing pain and discomfort. We appeal to the aesthetic revulsion caused by the ugliness of suffering, prompting an amelioration of its causes if reasonable, and an avoidance of behavior which would bring it about. Veneration for life itself is due to our immediate grasp of the inherently distressing nature of pain and suffering.