Are humans naturally hedonistic?

[ritz627]

So...are they?


And to take this even further...are they naturally evil?

[got tonkaed]

i guess my opinion on this probably wont figure too much into the discussion since it doesnt neatly fit in. I tend to avoid having absolutist views in regards to things such as good or evil. I dont think that as people we are born particularly as anything, outside of perhaps some genetic predispositions and some instinctual drives, that as infants we dont really have much control over. You could say i believe that in many ways humans are born as rather blank canvasses.

If there is a natural element, then i believe it is related to genetics. Since these are an inhereted aspect of our existence, i think its rather unnecessary and perhaps incorrect to add labels such as good or bad to them, since they are socially constructed positions that have no bearing on whether or not we are born the way we are. As of now, we could not change someones genetic qualities going into the fertilization of the egg, so why label those essential qualities as good or evil.


Do human created systems have elements that are bad or good. I would be more inclined to believe so, but tahts probably another thread.

[ritz627]

Well here's my reasoning (taken from a past essay I dug up):

While on the surface, many of my beliefs may seem altruistic, my reasoning is not. For instance, I care about the environment, but for the simple reason that I do not want my generation to go down in history as the ones who ruined it, an essentially selfish reasoning. I will be clustered with my generation in the history books, and to no ends can this be halted, so in effect, it is my generation that represents me. I am repulsed at those who drive cars that are horrible on gas, because it is representative of my generation, and therefore me, and this is a representation I do not want. For further proof of my hedonistic acts, one needs to look no further then my diet. I eat what I like, when I like. I have high cholesterol, even at my young age, but I still keep eating what I please.

So, is being hedonistic really that bad? Hedonism is doing something for your own well-being, which after all, is the fundamental idea behind capitalism. Being hedonistic does not make you an egotistical, maniacal jerk, but rather someone who is true to what they want. If you are doing something because it make you happy, is that not hedonism? Even if it makes others happy along the way, it still giving you pleasure and isn’t that pleasure the chief motive for committing the act? If doing community service was aggravating and annoying and you got nothing in return – no thanks, no rewarding feeling, no nothing – would you still do it? Hedonism is simply being realistic to one’s nature and living how one wishes to live, whether that be acts of community service, or eating everything they see.
Don’t get me wrong; when I see people acting selfish or egotistical, I am sickened. But does this make me an altruistic person? Not quite. I dislike them, not just because I think it makes them look bad, but because they are acting or implying that they are better than me. This holds a bit of irony – I dislike selfish and egotistical individuals as a result of selfish and egotistical reasoning, which hold truth in every individual.

My uncle works for an organization known as the Highbridge Community Life Center, and helps inner-city adults ages 18, teaching them how to get their GED’s. While volunteering with him, he talked to me about his job. He said that people always come up to him, telling him that he must be such a selfless person to help others like he does. But he felt the opposite, he told me that he is doing what he loves to do and enjoys doing, which is a seemingly selfish act. He found himself to be hedonistic, despite devoting his life to helping others.

The whole idea of doing what you like to do, not for the pay, is incredibly selfish. It is sacrificing the well-being of the family, for your own personal interest. A better paying job might put food on the table, but if one was to work at a fast food restaurant, just because he or she liked the job, it would have a much more devastating effect on the family.

Someone defending altruism might bring up a situation where one sacrifices his life for the good of another person, or a group. There are a few reasons one might feel compelled to commit such a seemingly selfless act. For instance, someone might want to be remembered, they might want to have a legacy. To quote the famous philosopher Alexis De Tocqueville, “A man wishes to perpetuate and immortalize himself…” Humans naturally want to be remembered as good people, and it is because of this that they might commit acts to better their own image. Furthermore, who could live with themselves knowing that they lived instead of someone else, and they had the choice to save him/her? No one. It is selfish to choose the “heroic” path in that if one did not, they would live in misery. To not want this misery bestowed upon them is selfish. Even though, on the surface, the heroic path is altruistic, the reasoning behind such an action is hedonistic. I find that those defending altruism are mistaken because they overlook reasoning by drawing attention to the action committed.

To elaborate, even giving money to charity can be considered a hedonistic act. Again, you are trying to better your image; you want people to think of you as good. Also, one gets a sense of self-gratification when they give. This simply is you trying to reassure yourself that you are a good person despite the subconscious realization that you are doing what is best for yourself. If self-gratification did not exist and people could care less, no one would be giving to charity. People give because they get something in return, whether that is a legacy, a sense of gratification, or your favorite talk show in the morning on NPR. Even though donating to charity seems like a one-sided act, a trade is being made, and one of the fundamental principles of economics is that voluntary trade creates wealth for both sides, meaning that both sides must get what they want in a trade. Trading, in any form, is a selfish act.

In sum, then, all humans, in every action, are hedonistic, and I am no exception. I am writing this because it is of the greatest benefit to me, and that I will, ultimately get the most pleasure out of this. If I did not write it, my parents would yell at me, and I would get a bad grade, hurting my chances of getting into the college of my choice. People commit acts in agreement with what they think is the best choice for themselves, which is an entirely selfish mentality. Though people may seem on the surface to be altruistic, it is not the act that is committed that indicates this, but it is why the act is committed that is the unconditional decider. This is the paramount judge of human nature, and it is an inescapable truth that the reasoning for committing actions within all of mankind is hedonistic, despite our best efforts to hide it. Call me cynical, but personally, I’d rather be cynical than naïve.

[vtmarik]

Humans are built to seek pleasure, and this is achieved through finding things that increase the flow of brain chemicals called endorphins. Food, sex, fellowship, humor, and most stimuli trigger the release of dopamine into the brain. So, if by "hedonistic" you mean "pleasure-seeking" then yes.

Humans are not naturally evil, as much as they are naturally aggressive. In fact nothing is naturally "evil." The concept of evil is not a product of nature, but a tuned abstract used by humans as both a form of classification and justification for countless years. Nature has no concept of good and evil because the good and evil alike must strive with the same biological equipment to survive on Earth. Moral codes, ethical decisions, and the deeper, philosophical mechanisms that drive the higher ideals of civilization and consciousness are separate from nature in the fact that even without these concepts the world keeps on spinning.

For example, the shark in the novel and film Jaws is depicted as capricious and evil. In the real world, however, sharks that attack humans are acting under a natural instinct to eat food and keep swimming. There is no "evil" agenda behind a shark attack, simply biological instincts of survival.

[ignotus]

Yes!

[unriggable]

"Evil" isn't really anything. It's a group which humans naturally put things they don't like, bunching up unrelated things and trying to make sense of them as a whole. Example - Xians calling everything the devil.