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Pleasure is commonly conceptualized as a positive experience, happiness, entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy, and euphoria, but is hard to define as it may be different depending upon the individual in question.
People commonly feel this phenomenon through eating, exercise, sexuality, music, usage of drugs, writing, accomplishment, recognition, service, and any other imaginable activity and even pain (known by its medical terminology masochism). It also refers to "enjoyment" related to certain physical, sensual, emotional or mental experience.[1]
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Pleasure
In the purely psychical sense, pleasure is seen generally as an independent feeling of happiness, while defined in mental terms is a sensation that causes one to try to achieve the sensation.
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
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 [2] while others mention the hypothalamus when referring to pleasure center for intracranial stimulation.[3]. Certain chemicals are known to stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain. These include dopamine and various endorphins.
See also
| The Utilitarianism series, part of the Politics series |
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Forms
Predecessors
Key concepts
Problems
See Also
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| Portal:Politics |
- Felicific calculus, an attempt to calculate pleasure
- Sexual pleasure
- Flow (psychology)
- Paradox of hedonism
- Gratification
- Pleasure principle
References
- ^ pleasure: Definition, Synonyms and Much More from Answers.com
- ^ (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
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 4 October 2008, at 17:53.
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