The Interesting and the Pleasant

Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 24 (1) (2023)
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Abstract

I argue that interesting experiences are experientially valuable in the same fashion as pleasant experiences, yet that the interesting is nonetheless a distinct value from the pleasant. Insofar as it challenges the hedonist’s assumption that pleasure and pain are the only evaluative dimensions of our phenomenological experiences, my argument here serves both as a defense of the value of the interesting and as an important critique of hedonism.

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Author's Profile

Lorraine L. Besser
Middlebury College

Citations of this work

Reimagining the Quality of Life.Lorraine L. Besser - 2023 - Journal of Philosophical Research 48:233-245.
Engagement, Experience, and Value.Lorraine L. Besser - 2023 - Journal of Philosophical Research 48:259-269.

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References found in this work

Facts and Values.Peter Railton - 1986 - Philosophical Topics 14 (2):5-31.
The distinctive feeling theory of pleasure.Ben Bramble - 2013 - Philosophical Studies 162 (2):201-217.
A New Defense of Hedonism about Well-Being.Ben Bramble - 2016 - Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 3.
The Pleasure of Art.Mohan Matthen - 2017 - Australasian Philosophical Review 1 (1):6-28.
The reduction of sensory pleasure to desire.Chris Heathwood - 2007 - Philosophical Studies 133 (1):23-44.

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