The term "happiness" is often used in this tradition to refer to the balance of pleasure over pain. Both pleasure and pain come in degrees and have been thought of as a dimension going from positive degrees through a neutral point to negative degrees. Discussions within hedonism usually focus more on pleasure, but as its negative side, pain is equally implied in these discussions. Pleasure contrasts with pain or suffering, which are forms of feeling bad.
Pleasure plays a central role in all forms of hedonism it refers to experience that feels good and involves the enjoyment of something. In this sense, it has a negative connotation, linked to the egoistic pursuit of short-term gratification by indulging in sensory pleasures without regard for the consequences. These technical definitions of hedonism within philosophy, which are usually seen as respectable schools of thought, have to be distinguished from how the term is used in everyday language, sometimes referred to as "folk hedonism". Applied to well-being or what is good for someone, it is the thesis that pleasure and suffering are the only components of well-being. Axiological hedonism, which is sometimes treated as a part of ethical hedonism, is the thesis that only pleasure has intrinsic value. Normative or ethical hedonism, on the other hand, is not about how we actually act but how we ought to act: we should pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Psychological or motivational hedonism claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decrease pain.
Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them.
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