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Single Idea 8104

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 3. Pleasure / c. Value of pleasure ]

Full Idea

What will you think of pleasures when you no longer enjoy them?

Gist of Idea

What will you think of pleasures when you no longer enjoy them?

Source

Joseph Joubert (Notebooks [1800], 1802)

Book Ref

Joubert,Joseph: 'Notebooks', ed/tr. Auster,Paul [nyrb 2005], p.78


A Reaction

A lovely test question for aspiring young hedonists! It doesn't follow at all that we will despise past pleasures. The judgement may be utilitarian - that we regret the pleasures that harmed others, but love the harmless ones. Shame is social.


The 15 ideas from Joseph Joubert

Seek wisdom rather than truth; it is easier [Joubert]
The imagination has made more discoveries than the eye [Joubert]
We must think with our entire body and soul [Joubert]
He gives his body up to pleasure, but not his soul [Joubert]
Virtue is hard if we are scorned; we need support [Joubert]
The truths of reason instruct, but they do not illuminate [Joubert]
Truth consists of having the same idea about something that God has [Joubert]
To know is to see inside oneself [Joubert]
Where does the bird's idea of a nest come from? [Joubert]
A thought is as real as a cannon ball [Joubert]
We cannot speak against Christianity without anger, or speak for it without love [Joubert]
What will you think of pleasures when you no longer enjoy them? [Joubert]
We can't exactly conceive virtue without the idea of God [Joubert]
In raising a child we must think of his old age [Joubert]
The love of certainty holds us back in metaphysics [Joubert]