If pleasure is the ultimate good, then the best possible universe is one made up entirely of pleasure. Say, for example, that a pill was developed that caused whoever took it, regardless of their situation, felt the maximum amount of pleasure their brain could experience. An ideal hedonist world would seem to be one in which everyone was constantly under the effect of this pill. Everyone high and doing nothing but feeling pleasure, however, seems rather objectionable as a contender for an ideal situation. The very fact that such a world can appear objectionable is evidence of a possible alternative explanation - that pleasure is outside of morals. Imagine someone attached electrodes to your brain and pressed a button that made you get up and dance. Such an action would be performed by you, but not of your own control. Perhaps pleasure can work like this. A mother that acts seemingly selflessly for her child may ultimately be acting because her brain is wired to find the outcome pleasurable, but her explanation would be one involving love or duty. The pleasure-motivation relation can be, then more like the energy-motion relation and has nothing to do with moral judgements or acts.
Search