Hedonism

Abstract Hedonism is the view that episodes of pleasure and pain are the only things that are fundamentally intrinsically good or bad for someone. This chapter argues that hedonism can be defended on the grounds that it provides the best explanation of the fact that events distant in space and time seem unable to affect an individual’s welfare. This chapter focuses especially on facts about welfare at a time, and it argues that hedonism is best situated to explain these facts. Finally, the chapter considers the famous “experience machine” argument against hedonism. It is argued that extant responses to this argument are unconvincing, and it is better to point out that defenders of the experience machine argument will be committed to implausible views concerning momentary welfare.