Pleasure or Pain?—Part 1

Every creature—from gigantic blue whales down to microscopic bacteria—shares a common tendency: to seek pleasure and avoid pain. This seeking-versus-avoidance behavior is so deeply ingrained in us that we almost never think about it. In fact, it's instinctual... we don't have to think about it, because evolution has made it innate in us. We do it naturally. We humans grab for pleasure—sex, food, warmth, comfort—just as an insect does. Similarly, we back off from pain much like a worm or a bear does.

Many philosophers have pondered this pleasure-or-pain phenomenon, and have come up with a wide range of theories and explanations for this behavior. One of the early Enlightenment philosophers to delve into this topic was an oddball Englishman named Jeremy Bentham. He was both a philosopher and a social reformer who founded the school of utilitarianism in the early 1800s. Utilitarianism seeks the “greatest happiness” in the populace—defining happiness as a predominance of pleasure over pain. Bentham was convinced that it is our nature to have the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain literally drive our behavior—that they “govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think...”

A couple of millennia before Bentham, the Greek philosopher Epicurus had some of the same ideas. Both he and Bentham felt that a lot of human behavior is driven by our desire to seek pleasure and avoid pain. In fact, Epicurus decided that the very basis of human fulfillment is dependent on our success at finding pleasure.

Unfortunately, the use of the word “pleasure” can be problematic, because it too often carries the connotation of shallow amusement or sensual gratification. Thus Epicureanism came to be associated with hedonism—a misinterpretation that has caused many people to shy away from Epicurus' ideas—especially the more straight-laced Protestants. Neither Bentham nor Epicurus advocated hedonism. So in order to avoid some of the controversy, I think a more appropriate word is happiness, rather than pleasure. We all seek happiness, in the sense that we wish for peace, health, safety, and spiritual fulfillment.

More on Pleasure or Pain next time...