Skye & Massimo's Philosophy Cafe: Philosophy of Hedonism

“Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters: pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do,” according to Jeremy Bentham. Was he right? Should we be pursuing the greatest-good-for-the-greatest-number? How should we understand pleasure? What about Epicurus, who defined happiness as tranquility more than pleasure? Or is pleasure entirely the wrong way to think about a good life?

Hedonistic philosophy proposes that maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain are ultimately important in living a good life. This might be true to some extent, but whether they’re the *only* important elements is debatable. We’ll be discussing whether you should feel guilty about pursuing pleasure and more at the next Skye & Massimo’s Philosophy Cafe!

Skye & Massimo’s Philosophy Cafe is run by philosophers Skye Cleary (http://tinyurl.com/yddu38tf) and Massimo Pigliucci (http://tinyurl.com/msm6d6u) and is based on the principle of the Socratic dialogue. Every meeting has a simple theme (e.g., should we be afraid of death? What’s the ethics of eating?), which is introduced by Skye and Massimo on the basis of short, accessible, suggested (but not mandatory!) readings. The rest of the meeting then features an open discussion among participants, facilitated by Skye and Massimo, aiming at sharpening our thinking about whatever subject matter is being examined.

Meeting dates subject to change. For more information, visit the Cafe’s on Meetup:

https://www.meetup.com/SkyeandMassimophilosophycafe.