Modern society has miraculously learned to trivialize and put on grotesque masks on concepts that have existed on this earth for hundreds of years. Today we are not surprised by the phrase "hedonism, hotel". Moreover, such terms are used by people who do not fully realize that such a definition carried in itself initially and how it was interpreted earlier. For many, the hotel "Hedonism" (Jamaica) is considered stable and reliable phrases. So what does this word mean?
Hedonism is primarily an ethical doctrine that originated in one of the most revered cultural centers of civilization - Ancient Greece. Any moral in a person, according to the postulates of this point of view, is pleasure or suffering. Yes, the Kirenaki, who are the forefathers of this philosophy, put forward pleasure as the highest goal, for the sake of which a person exists. However, who said that they meant only carnal ecstasy?
The transformation of the concept over time is also surprising. Socrates began to divide pleasures into "evil, false" and "good, true." I have no doubts about the authority of the great Greek and his wisdom, but … Isn’t it from this point that the"Fork" in the perception of good and bad in different ways? Already Aristotle said that "pleasure is not good." Surprisingly, but soon the thinking of the greats again returned to the starting point. So, Epicurus again began to talk about pleasure (though not for the body, but for the soul) as the highest good.
Epicureans are accused of selfishness, and one can often hear that hedonism is pleasure at all costs. To some extent, it is. But look how different its manifestations are. The ideas of hedonism were gently "propagated" by Spinoza and Locke, Mandeville and Hume. The most striking flash can be called the works of De Sade. It is in them that hedonism is a counterbalance, it is a protest against society.
The modern concept of the term is much narrower. Today hedonism is sex, services of an intimate nature, satisfaction of carnal desire. Pretty deplorable for a doctrine that has existed for several hundred years. Moreover, such a "one-sided" perception of pleasure is already becoming commonplace.
Modernity has “vulgarized” and made primitive not only the reactions of the masses, but also the very perception of reality. A person does not seek to reason and analyze. He, like a voice recorder, reproduces those definitions that he heard or read in one, not always reliable, source. Today it is accepted that hedonism is sex and all its manifestations. Is there really nothing else for a person to get emotions from with the sign +?
Why is delight to tears considered ridiculous? It has become indecent to cry at all.
Why is hedonism sex or carnal pleasure? Or is the delight of a sunset at sea or snowflakes w altzing in the light of a lantern a perversion? We have become critical. We divide the world into our concept of black and white, into norms and deviations. Why is there always a sexual connotation in the word "pleasure" today? The Greeks considered both training (to make it pleasant to look at the body), and figurative speech, and spiritual strength as pleasure. Hedonism is the talent to live brightly and be happy from it.
