Single Idea 6252

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / a. Nature of happiness]

Full Idea

In the following discourse, happiness denotes pleasant sensation of any kind, or continued state of such sensations.

Gist of Idea

Happiness is a pleasant sensation, or continued state of such sensations

Source

Francis Hutcheson (Treatise 4: The Moral Sense [1728], Intro)

Book Reference

'British Moralists 1650-1800 Vol. 1', ed/tr. Raphael,D.D. [Hackett 1991], p.305


A Reaction

This is a very long way from Greek eudaimonia. Hutcheson seems to imply that I would be happy if I got high on drugs after my family had just burnt to death. Socrates points out that scratching an itch is a very pleasant sensation (Idea 132).

Related Idea

Idea 132 If happiness is the satisfaction of desires, then a life of scratching itches should be happiness [Plato]