Well, I hope this distinction is sufficiently clear. Now let us see how
it bears upon Ethical Hedonism. I assume it to be perfectly obvious
that the idea of the object of desire is not always and only the idea
of a pleasure. In the first place, plainly, we are not always conscious
of expecting pleasure, when we desire a thing. We may be only conscious
of the thing which we desire, and may be impelled to make for it at
once, without any calculation as to whether it will bring us pleasure
or pain. And, in the second place, even when we do expect pleasure,
it can certainly be very rarely pleasure _only_ which we desire. For
instance, granted that, when I desire my glass of port wine, I have
also an idea of the pleasure I expect from it, plainly that pleasure
cannot be the only object of my desire; the port wine must be included
in my object, else I might be led by my desire to take wormwood instead
of wine. If the desire were directed _solely_ towards the pleasure,
it could not lead me to take the wine; if it is to take a definite
direction, it is absolutely necessary that the idea of the object, from
which the pleasure is expected, should also be present and should
control my activity. The theory then that what is desired is always and
only pleasure must break down: it is impossible to prove that pleasure
alone is good, by that line of argument. But, if we substitute for this
theory, that other, possibly true, theory, that pleasure is always the
cause of desire, then all the plausibility of our ethical doctrine
that pleasure alone is good straightway disappears. For in this case,
pleasure is not what I desire, it is not what I want: it is something
which I already have, before I can want anything. And can any one feel
inclined to maintain, that that which I already have, while I am still
desiring something else, is always and alone the good?
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