Pleasure

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Pleasure is commonly conceptualized as a positive experience, happiness, entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy, and euphoria. It is the absolute opposite of pain.

People commonly feel this phenomenon through exercise, sexuality, music, usage of drugs, writing, accomplishment, recognition, service, and any other imaginable activity; even pain (known by its medical terminology masochism). It also refers to "enjoyment" related to certain physical, sensual, emotional or mental experience.^{[citation needed]}

1 Philosophy
2 Neurology
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Philosophy

Pleasure may also be defined, at least in some contexts, as being the reduction or absence of pain. Epicurus and his followers defined pleasure as the absence of pain.^{[citation needed]}

The 19th Century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer understood pleasure as a negative sensation, as it negates the usual existential condition, that of suffering.^{[citation needed]}

Utilitarianism and New Hedonism philosophies both attempt to increase to the maximum the amount of pleasure and minimize the amount of pain.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Neurology

The pleasure center is the set of brain structures, predominantly the nucleus accumbens, theorized to produce great pleasure when stimulated electrically. Some references state that the septum pellucidium is generally considered to be the pleasure center ^[1] while others mention the hypothalamus when referring to pleasure center for intracranial stimulation.^[2]. Certain chemicals are known to stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain. These include dopamine and various endorphins.

[edit] See also

The Utilitarianism series, part of the Politics series
Utilitarian Thinkers Jeremy Bentham John Stuart Mill Henry Sidgwick Peter Singer Forms preference utilitarianism rule utilitarianism act utilitarianism Two-level utilitarianism Total utilitarianism Average utilitarianism Negative utilitarianism animal welfare Abolitionism (bioethics) Hedonism Enlightened self-interest Predecessors Epicurus David Hume William Godwin Key concepts Pain Suffering Pleasure Utility Happiness Eudaimonia Consequentialism Felicific calculus Problems Mere addition paradox Paradox of hedonism Utility monster See Also Rational choice theory Game theory Social choice Economics
Portal:Politics

The Utilitarianism series,
part of the Politics series

Utilitarian Thinkers

Forms

Predecessors

Key concepts

Problems

See Also

Portal:Politics

Look up Pleasure in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Felicific calculus, an attempt to calculate pleasure
Sexual pleasure
Flow (psychology)
Paradox of hedonism
Gratification

[edit] References

^ (1991) The Science of Love – Understanding Love and its Effects on Mind and Body. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-648-9.
^ Kandel ER, Schwartz JH, Jessell TM. Principles of Neural Science, 4th ed. McGraw-Hill, New York (2000). ISBN 0-8385-7701-6