The distinctive feeling theory of pleasure

@article{Bramble2013TheDF,
  title={The distinctive feeling theory of pleasure},
  author={Ben Bramble},
  journal={Philosophical Studies},
  year={2013},
  volume={162},
  pages={201-217}
}
  • Ben Bramble
  • Published 2013
  • Psychology
  • Philosophical Studies
In this article, I attempt to resuscitate the perennially unfashionable distinctive feeling theory of pleasure (and pain), according to which for an experience to be pleasant (or unpleasant) is just for it to involve or contain a distinctive kind of feeling. I do this in two ways. First, by offering powerful new arguments against its two chief rivals: attitude theories, on the one hand, and the phenomenological theories of Roger Crisp, Shelly Kagan, and Aaron Smuts, on the other. Second, by… Expand
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References

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One of the leading approaches to the nature of sensory pleasure reduces it to desire: roughly, a sensation qualifies as a sensation of pleasure just in case its subject wants to be feeling it. This… Expand
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In this essay I defend six theses about pleasure: 1. 'Pleasure' has one English antonym: 'unpleasure'. 2. Pleasure is the most convincing example of an organic unity. 3. The " hedonic calculus " is a… Expand
Why people prefer pleasure to pain
Why do we dislike and wish to avoid pain and suffering? Why do we prefer pleasure to pain? There are three answers to be considered. (1) We have a reason for wanting pleasure and for shunning pain.… Expand
Pleasure as a Mental State
Shelly Kagan and Leonard Katz have offered versions of hedonism that aspire to occupy a middle position between the view that pleasure is a unitary sensation and the view that pleasure is, as… Expand
Desire-Based Theories of Reasons, Pleasure, and Welfare
One of the most important disputes in the foundations of ethics concerns the source of practical reasons. On the desire-based or internalist view, only one’s desires (broadly construed) provide one… Expand
Three Faces of Desire
Desires lead to actions, influence feelings, and determine what counts as a reward. Recent empirical evidence shows that these three aspects of desire stem from a common biological origin. Informed… Expand
Are Pains Necessarily Unpleasant
With apologies for asking you to do something unpleasant, I bid you think of some painful injury you suffered recently, say a cut finger, a burned hand, or a bruised leg. Concentrate on the painful… Expand
The Myth of Pain
Pain, although very common, is little understood. Worse still, according to Valerie Gray Hardcastle, both professional and lay definitions of pain are wrongheaded--with consequences for how pain and… Expand
How Well Do We Know Our Own Conscious Experience? The Case of Visual Imagery
Philosophers tend to assume that we have excellent knowledge of our own current conscious experience or ‘phenomenology’. I argue that our knowledge of one aspect of our experience, the experience of… Expand
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