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Full Idea
Hedonism failed because it offered as an end of human aspiration an object in which the human spirit, pledged by its own nature to self-betterment, …could never find satisfaction.
Gist of Idea
Hedonism offers no satisfaction, because what we desire is self-betterment
Source
report of T.H. Green (works [1875]) by John H. Muirhead - The Service of the State II
Book Ref
Muirhead,John H.: 'The Service of the State: T.H. Green' [John Murray 2021], p.27
A Reaction
It is always both sad and amusing to see that 150 years ago someone wrote of a doctrine that is still with us that it has 'failed'. Nowadays they try to say the same of physicalism. His objection rests on optimism about humanity.
Related Idea
Idea 22032 Fichte's key claim was that the subjective-objective distinction must itself be subjective [Fichte, by Pinkard]
| 23027 | Ideals and metaphysics are practical, not imaginative or speculative [Green,TH, by Muirhead] |
| 23030 | Truth is a relation to a whole of organised knowledge in the collection of rational minds [Green,TH, by Muirhead] |
| 23044 | All knowledge rests on a fundamental unity between the knower and what is known [Green,TH, by Muirhead] |
| 23034 | The ultimate test for truth is the systematic interdependence in nature [Green,TH, by Muirhead] |
| 23032 | What is distinctive of human life is the desire for self-improvement [Green,TH, by Muirhead] |
| 23033 | Hedonism offers no satisfaction, because what we desire is self-betterment [Green,TH, by Muirhead] |
| 23045 | Politics is compromises, which seem supported by a social contract, but express the will of no one [Green,TH] |
| 23031 | God is the ideal end of the mature mind's final development [Green,TH] |
| 23050 | The ideal is a society in which all citizens are ladies and gentlemen [Green,TH] |
| 23036 | The good is identified by the capacities of its participants [Green,TH, by Muirhead] |
| 23039 | A true state is only unified and stabilised by acknowledging individuality [Green,TH, by Muirhead] |
| 23038 | People only develop their personality through co-operation with the social whole [Green,TH, by Muirhead] |
| 23040 | If something develops, its true nature is embodied in its end [Green,TH] |
| 23041 | God is the realisation of the possibilities of each man's self [Green,TH] |
| 23052 | Enfranchisement is an end in itself; it makes a person moral, and gives a basis for respect [Green,TH] |