The Pursuit of Pleasure in a Society Without Soul

We live in an indulgent world that pushes the ideology of self-interest and shallow values. We hear the messages, “Live Your Best Life.” “Just Do You,” “If It Feels Good, Do It,” “Nothing Lasts Forever.” Society constantly conspires to promote a consumer mentality that tells people to continually want better, newer, faster, fresher, sexier, and to never get enough. If something gets broken, inconvenient, old, boring, or hard, just throw it away and replace it with something that will make you happier. It’s all good. You gotta be you and be true to yourself, right?

But what happens to people who buy this empty set of ethics? Is a hedonistic lifestyle the key to a happy life? And is happiness and indulgence in sensual pleasure the main goal that creates a meaningful life? Who really cares about meaning when life is a non-stop sextravaganza of orgiastic sensory delight?

Does happiness lie in feeling good, as hedonists think, or in doing and being good, as Aristotle and the virtue ethicists, think? From the evidence of numerous research studies, it seems that feeling good is not enough. People need meaning to thrive. The terms hedonism and eudaimonism bring to mind the great philosophical debate about the “nature of the good life”. If hedonism centers on the quest for pleasure, then eudaimonism focuses on a more altruistic and selfless…