Well, these activities are good … until they’re not. And everyone knows the advantages of physical fitness. A regular glass of wine is said to have a protective effect against dementia and heart disease, perhaps due to its antioxidant flavonoids. For example, women who say they are satisfied with their sex life score higher on measures of psychological well-being and vitality. Perhaps the memory is of a very good glass of wine, or those last 50 metres of a long, satisfying run.Īnd these are good things, right? Sexual pleasure is linked with health and well-being.

If you close your eyes and think about a time you experienced a tingle of pleasure, chances are you’re remembering a sexual experience, or something delicious you’ve eaten. There is no single stimulus that elicits exactly the same response in everyone all the time: pleasure is an interaction between the stimulus and the perceiver.Ĭhills and thrills: why some people love music – and others don't Just as different experiences can bring a similar shiver of pleasure, the same experience can conjure a range of responses - from extreme pleasure to definite displeasure - in different people.

So, a lover’s caress gives me pleasure, but so can a piece of music, laughing with friends, or simply sitting still in a comfy chair after a frantic day. This is a broad perspective, but one easily applied to our everyday lives. It might help to think of pleasure simply as a subjective state of enjoyment. This is largely due to some highly nuanced philosophical arguments about how we should conceptualise pleasure. Today there are multiple views on what hedonism is. Hedonism has its philosophical roots as far back as Plato and Socrates, but ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus is often credited with articulating an early brand of hedonism based not on a life of untamed appetites, but on moderate pleasures and respect for others. We wait for their liver to rebel or their life to come crashing down around them, as of course it must.īut this kind of behaviour is better termed debauchery – extreme indulgence in bodily pleasures and especially sexual pleasures – rather than hedonism. They indulge their carnal appetites in ways we daren’t, with scant regard for consequences. We find these characters so compelling because they seem to reject the sensible, responsible way to live. Futurama’s Hedonism Bot knows what gives him pleasure, and it’s not always the usual suspects.

Wine hedonistic definition