The A to Z of -isms. Hedonism.
Hedonism is the philosophy of living your
life to experience pleasure and avoid
pain, so if you're watching this while
lying on a chaise longue and eating
sweets
you're probably a hedonist. Oh, unless you
hate sugar in which case you're probably
a masochist, and that is another
film. The word hedonism comes from the
ancient Greek hedone,  meaning
pleasure and some of the earliest
recorded hedonists were Greek: 
Democritus, Aristippus, and most
famously, the 4th century BCE philosopher
Epicurus.
Although Epicurus was less of a
thrill-seeker than his hedonism
implies. For Epicurus the best human
condition was a state which he called
ataraxia, meaning tranquility.
Epicurus believed that small pleasures
were more likely to bring us tranquility
than earth-shattering pleasures and it's
easy to see his point. If you find
pleasure in a glass of wine with friends
at the end of a day that will be
relatively easy to achieve. Crucially for
the epicurean thinker that means it will
also be easy to avoid the pain of not
being able to have something you desire,
a pain which would upset your state of
ataraxia. But if you are only satisfied
with vintage champagne that might not be
so easily found. You might not be able to
afford it, or the bar where your friends
are meeting might not serve it, or the
vintage might have run out because you
have drunk it all on previous hedonistic
nights out. Your likelihood of
experiencing pain goes up as you become
more exacting in your standards of what
you need to bring deep pleasure.
So, although hedonism assumes that we
seek out pleasure and avoid pain at all
times, 
it might be worth remembering that more
modest pleasures can be easier to find
and that might bring you less pain in
the long term, the true hedonist score. 
And while we might not always think of
ourselves as pleasure seekers every time
we sit on a comfy chair rather than bed
of nails we are making a hedonistic
choice. Now if you'll excuse me, I must
get back to my sweets.
