We may affirm, then, that practically all our experience has an affective tone. It is either pleasant or unpleasant, either agreeable or disagreeable.
It is obviously important to consider what attitude we ought to adopt towards pleasure. Is pleasure good or evil? Ought we to seek pleasure or shun it? No question, perhaps, in the whole field of ethics has been discussed with such persistence; and on no question has there been more strongly marked diversity of opinion.
§ 2. Hedonism. From the dawn of ethical speculation there have been thinkers who have maintained that the great aim of life is the attainment of pleasure. These thinkers are called Hedonists. (The name is derived from the Greek word for pleasure.) One of the earliest Hedonists was Aristippus, who was born about 435 B.C. He held that the great aim of life is to enjoy the pleasures of the moment. Man should not "look before and after"; he should think only of the moment, and throw all his energies into the enjoyment of each pleasure as it comes. The hot blood of Africa ran in Aristippus's veins, and he and his followers put their theory into practice by indulging in all sorts of pleasures indiscriminately.
This crude theory was polished and elevated by Epicurus (341-270 B.C.), who saw that an existence made up simply of pleasurable moments could not be the best life for man. Such a life might be adequate for animals. But it is man's nature to be able to reflect and anticipate; man's life is not merely a series of disconnected moments, it is a relatively persistent and consistent whole. Therefore, Epi-
