Do we seek pleasure and avoid pain? The moral psychologist Paul Bloom believes psychological hedonism gives an inaccurate picture of what motivates us. In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast he discusses pain and pleasure with Nigel Warburton.
This is philosophy bites, with me, Nigel.
Warburton, and me, David Edmonds.
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Why do we make philosophy bytes?
According to one strand of philosophical thinking, there can be only one answer.
It's because, however implausible this might seem, it makes us happy.
Paul Bloom is a psychologist interested in whether we really are driven by the avoidance of pain and the search for pleasure.
Paul Bloom, welcome to philosophy Bites.
Thank you so much for having me on.
I'm thrilled to be on this show.
The topic we're going to focus on is psychological hedonism.
Maybe you could just say at the beginning what that is.
It's a very popular theory.
A lot of my friends and colleagues hold it, a lot of people, people on the street hold it.
And the idea is that all people are after, fundamentally is pleasure.
Seek out pleasure to avoid pain.
Obviously life contains suffering, but that's a bad thing.
And obviously we choose suffering.