Godny pożądania stan świadomości. O przyjemności jako wartości ostatecznej
A desirable state of consciousness. About pleasure as a final value

Author(s): Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek
Subject(s): Philosophy, Ethics / Practical Philosophy
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: hedonism; pleasure; well-being; value; ultimate good
Summary/Abstract: The book covers and further develops an extensive discussion in analytical philosophy over the past 30 years, especially in Great Britain and the USA, around the topic of well-being, value and pleasure. The subject matter ensures that it will interest a broad audience, beyond academic circles. The basic thesis of the work is that the feeling of pleasure, understood as desirable consciousness, is a value in itself. Dr de Lazari-Radek provides a contemporary defense of hedonism, taking into account not only philosophical but also neuroscientific and psychological arguments. The book consists of two parts. In the first, the author discusses notions of good/ultimate good and well-being as well as two leading theories of well-being: desire-based theory and perfectionism. She presents a broad range of views held by contemporary philosophers such as Derek Parfit, Roger Crisp, Bernard Williams, Ruth Chang, Martha Nussbaum, and Thomas Hurka, while ultimately rejecting both theories. The second part is entirely devoted to defending hedonism, which involves offering a new definition of the concept of pleasure. A novel feature of the argument is the use of recent findings in psychological and neurobiological research, in addition to philosophical arguments. This is the first book in Poland devoted to a defense of hedonism as a theory of value, and one of very few dealing from a philosophical perspective with the issue of human well-being and what it is to live a good life.

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