hedonism
[heed-n-iz-uhm]
- the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the highest good.
- devotion to pleasure as a way of life: The later Roman emperors were notorious for their hedonism.
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Origin of hedonism
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comAntonyms
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for hedonism
Contemporary Examples
His life of hedonism suddenly seems empty when he begins to fall in love with Grace.
Is ‘Satisfaction’ a Love Story That’s Too Real About Sex and Marriage?David Masciotra
September 19, 2014
Those avatars of hedonism, The Europeans, are aghast at discovering that the average American vacation lasts for just 4.1 days.
Obama’s Extravagant Summer Break? More Like, America’s Vacation-Deficit DisorderClive Irving
August 10, 2014
Georgia Congressman Bob Barr warned that “the flames of hedonism . . . are licking at the very foundations of our society.”
Justice Kennedy Opened the Door to Same-Sex Marriage, Will He Walk Through Next?Geoffrey R. Stone
August 3, 2014
But the pleasures of vengeance and hedonism prove a dead end for Wanda.
After a night of hedonism, head out into Louisiana's Cajun Country.
Historical Examples
And no hedonism, no theory of rights, could supply an operating rule for conduct.
The Life of MazziniBolton King
Veblen has made it perfectly clear that particular matters of theory are affected by the presupposition of hedonism.
Creative IntelligenceJohn Dewey, Addison W. Moore, Harold Chapman Brown, George H. Mead, Boyd H. Bode, Henry Waldgrave, Stuart James, Hayden Tufts, Horace M. Kallen
His own view is that the Austrians are not essentially bound up with hedonism.
Social ValueB. M. Anderson
The sonnets on the Days breathe the same quaint medieval hedonism.
Renaissance in Italy: Italian LiteratureJohn Addington Symonds
Honora's amazement at her cousin's hedonism gave way to contempt for it.
The PrecipiceElia Wilkinson Peattie
hedonism
- ethics
- the doctrine that moral value can be defined in terms of pleasureSee utilitarianism
- the doctrine that the pursuit of pleasure is the highest good
- the pursuit of pleasure as a matter of principle
- indulgence in sensual pleasures
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Word Origin
C19: from Greek hēdonē pleasure
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for hedonism
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
hedonism
[(heed-n-iz-uhm)]
In ethics, the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the highest good in life. Some hedonists, such as the Epicureans, have insisted that pleasure of the entire mind, not just pleasure of the senses, is this highest good.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.