Pleasure As An Escape

Some pleasures are exclusively mental, like that of existential empowerment derived from discovering logical necessities, and some are both bodily and mental, like the taste of food, for though the body's tongue physically contacts food, without the mind, there would be no experience of this contact or of the flavor.  In other words, some pleasures involve only the mind and its grasp of reason and itself, and some involve the mind and its senses, which in turn perceive the body and the seeming external world.  None of these truths are what hedonists are ultimately after, for they want pleasure for the sake of pleasure--or pleasure for the sake of escape, no matter how irrationally they approach this wondrous subject.

Alcohol, other drugs, sex or other forms of sexual expression, comfortable clothing, or immersion in entertainment like cinema and gaming to the point of neglecting more philosophically significant matters are some of the ways a hedonist might choose to live out their reductionistic bent towards pleasure.  None of these things, though they can be deeply pleasurable, must or can only be used in such a manner.  Motivated by more than just the allure of pleasant experiences, though, the most desperate hedonists are more foundationally after relief from pain.  Whatever their individual trials and tribulations, they do not want escapism for the sake of mere escapism.  They desire peace, healing, or distraction.

The truth is that a hedonistic approach to pleasure on an ideological or behavioral level, regardless of the method or type pursued, not only prolongs the problem(s), for one would be allowing them to remain or worsen by seeking emotionalistic/hedonistic escapism instead of addressing them, but it also increases the likelihood of more trials.  For example, someone who resorts to alcoholism in an attempt to cope with depression still has their depression to deal with, and accidentally getting into a vehicular accident while drunk would make their life situation worse.  Aside from even moral concerns and the irrationality of living for pleasure instead of for the necessary truths of logic (although one could find great pleasure in them), there is always the potential for great pragmatic harm.

Perhaps this comes to mind for some hedonists as they look to something like drugs to deliver them from problems that are independent of drug abuse or addiction, although a functional hedonist is always more likely to be a non-rationalist who does not know truth at all, as opposed to someone who knows logical truths but selectively or behaviorally disregards them.  If the thought of this truth, though they could not truly understand reality as a non-rationalist, does surface in someone's mind, pain might still be enough to persuade them to seek out pleasure in a toxic manner anyway.  After all, the goal of this kind of hedonist, who is less shallow than someone who leaps into hedonism with other intentions, is just to drown suffering out of their immediate consciousness (as much as they can) by triggering distracting but temporary states of mind.

The problems nonetheless are there when the hangover ends, the hangover itself entailing more difficulties.  They will not have disappeared just because someone indulges in promiscuous sex, yet troublesome emotional attachments and pregnancy might result.  Examples are in actuality unnecessary to know this objective truth: hedonism does not eliminate the problems it might be used to mask.  On the contrary, it can allow them to fester and can in one way or another lead to additional woes that a hedonist might mistake for more of a reason to seek pleasure in irrationalistic forms.  Pleasure by itself can provide a helpful escape of sorts from misery and to recognize, celebrate, and act on this is not invalid.  Hedonism regards pleasure as the focal point of life or as the ultimate or total remedy for practically any trial, and it is by necessity neither.