Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Hedonist |
HedonistNoun1. Someone motivated by desires for sensual pleasures. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "hedonist" was first used: 1822. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Hedonism is any theory that gives pleasure a central role. The simplest form of hedonism in ethics is "whatever causes pleasure is right". Even that simple version immediately runs into trouble. Pleasure for whom? Average pleasure? Is that the median or the mean? How can you make interpersonal comparisons of pleasure, anyway? Or even cross-time comparisons for the same person? Is that pleasure in the short term, or the long term? Another summary of hedonism, "Pleasure is the highest good" avoids some of these complexities, at the cost of not saying anything of practical consequence...Epicureanism is the best-known form of ancient hedonism. Epicurus identified pleasure with tranquility, and emphasized the "reduce desire" aspects over the "find lots of hot babes" aspects.
The utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill is sometimes classified as a type of hedonism, since it judges the rightness of actions from the happiness that they lead to, and happiness is identified with pleasure. This is, note, a selfless hedonism; whereas Epicurus recommends doing whatever makes you happiest, Mill would have you do whatever makes everyone happiest.
Some of Sigmund Freud's theories of human motivation have been called psychological hedonism; his "life instinct" turns out to be the (startling!) observation that people pursue pleasure. But he muddies up the waters with various less plausible mechanisms, such as the "death instinct".
See also: evil, goodness, hedonistic imperative, millennialism, Paradox of hedonism, psychological hedonism
External Links
- The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy on:
Also see: Hedonism Resorts
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Hedonism."
Synonym: HedonistSynonym: pleasure seeker (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Sensualist | Noun: Sybarite, voluptuary, Sardanaphalus, man of pleasure, carpet knight; epicure, epicurean, gourmet, gourmand; pig, hog; votary of Epicurus, swine of Epicurus; sensualist; Heliogabalus; free liver, hard liver; libertine; hedonist; tragalist. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Hedonist |
| Non-English Usage: "Hedonist" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. German (hedonist), Romanian (hedonist). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Hedonist Hypnotist (1970) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Hedonist" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.43% of the time. "Hedonist" is used about 28 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 96.43% | 27 | 66,962 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 3.57% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 28 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
the hedonist | 76 |
hedonist resort | 5 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "hedonist"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Arabic | متعي, الساعي وراء المتعة. (various references) | |
French | hédoniste (hedonistic). (various references) | |
German | hedonist, Lebenskünstler (master in the art of living, philosopher), genussmensch (bon vivant), der Hedonist. (various references) | |
Greek | ηδονιστήσ. (various references) | |
Hebrew | תע ו'ן, רו"ף תע ו'ות (epicurean, sybarite), " תן. (various references) | |
Italian | edonista. (various references) | |
Korean | 괘락주의자. (various references) | |
Norwegian | hedning (heathen). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | edonisthay.(various references) | |
Romanian | hedonist. (various references) | |
Russian | гедонист. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | hedonista (free-liver). (various references) | |
Thai | คนเจ้าสำราญ. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | người theo chủ nghĩa khoái lạc. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | hedone. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "hedonist": hedonistic, hedonistically, hedonists. (additional references) | |
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"Hedonist" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: headonist, hedenist, hedonis, heodonist, Peronista. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-h-i-n-o-s-t" | |
-1 letter: ethions, histone, hoidens, hoisted. | |
-2 letters: dhotis, donsie, ethion, ethnos, hinted, histed, hoiden, hoised, honest, honied, hosted, noised, noshed, onside, shined, stoned, teinds, theins, todies, tonish. | |
-3 letters: deist, dents, dhoti, diets, dines, dints, dites, doest, doeth, doits, dotes, edits, eidos, eosin, ethos, heist, hents, hides, hinds, hints, hoise, hoist, honed, hones, hosed, hosen, inset. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-e-h-i-n-o-s-t" | |
+1 letter: dishonest, hedonists, outshined, stonished. | |
+2 letters: astonished, chondrites, dishonesty, hedonistic, rhodonites, threnodies, threnodist, trihedrons. | |
+3 letters: achondrites, dishonestly, doltishness, doughtiness, downshifted, longsighted, methodising, rhinestoned, stanchioned, thistledown, threnodists. | |
+4 letters: admonishment, anticathodes, clotheslined, dehydrations, demolishment, dishonesties, doublethinks, droughtiness, endothermies, ethionamides, hebetudinous, homesteading, housetrained, rehydrations, spinsterhood, thistledowns. | |
+5 letters: admonishments, dechlorinates, demolishments, diathermanous, diphthongizes, dodecaphonist, doltishnesses, doughtinesses, downrightness, endotheliomas, fountainheads, hemodilutions, indomethacins, spinsterhoods, thioridazines, undershooting, unorthodoxies. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Translations: Ancient 10. Derivations 11. Anagrams 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
