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PLEASURE (through Fr. plaisir from La...

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 834 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PLEASURE (through Fr. plaisir from See also:Lat. placere, to please; Gr. rlbovii) , a See also:term used loosely in See also:ordinary See also:language as practically synonymous with " enjoyment." As such it is applied equally to what are known as the " higher " or " intellectual " pleasures, and to purely " sensual," " See also:animal " or " See also:lower " pleasures. The conditions under which a See also:man is pleased are the subject both or psychological and of ethical investigation. In See also:general it may be said that pleasure and See also:pain follow respectively upon the success of the failure of some effort, See also:mental or See also:physical (see See also:PSYCHOLOGY); they may also attend upon purely passive sensations, e.g. a warm See also:sun, a heavy shower, or upon associations with previous states of mind (i.e. a man may enjoy a sensation which is intrinsically painful, if it has pleasant associations). Recognition of the fact that mankind seeks pleasure and avoids pain has led some moralists to the conclusion that all human conduct is actuated by hedonic considerations: this is the See also:direct See also:antithesis to ethical theories which maintain an See also:absolute criterion of right and wrong (see See also:HEDONISM; See also:ETHICS). See also:Aristotle took a See also:middle view, holding that pleasure, though not the end of virtuous See also:action yet necessarily follows upon it (E7re'yevbµevbv rl i-iXoc).

End of Article: PLEASURE (through Fr. plaisir from Lat. placere, to please; Gr. rlbovii)

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