OSCAR WILDE: A STUDY IN ART, MORTALITY, AND PLEASURE PURSUIT
Hussein Jasim Mohammed Al-Husseini
English Department
University of Misan
Amarah, Maysan, Iraq
Abstract
Oscar Wild's attitude to hedonism would not be of an ordinary variety. Thus, it becomes all the more necessary to focus this study on Hedonism - Its Philosophical Bases in intertwining connection with the extraordinary strange personality of Oscar Wilde. His mind during its vigorous growth of creativity for one decade and more oscillated from the Keatsian sensuousness to the upper reaches of saint- like illuminations, as one finds in his works such as De Profundis, The Soul of Man under Socialism as well as in some of his short poems. His attitude to hedonism or pleasure -pursuit …show more content…
The former claims that all people are motivated by the pursuit of pleasure. For example, we may say that we love virtue for its own sake, but the psychological hedonist will assert that it gives us pleasure to be virtuous. Even the ascetic who fasts and mortifies his body is really dominated by the pleasure ideal, according to this theory, for he probably finds a degree of enjoyment in such activities or he may find a masochistic pleasure in his own suffering.
The ethical hedonist asserts that pleasure is not always pursued in life, but that it ought to be man's exclusive goal. The ethical hedonist looks with scorn at self-imposed suffering and useless self-sacrifice. He counsels man to enjoy himself, and in this way attain complete happiness. Hedonism also has been divided according to its social outlook. Individualistic hedonism is interested only in our personal welfare. Represented by Aristippus and Epicurus, it neglects the welfare and advancement of society. On the other hand, universalistic hedonism believes that happiness has a social connotation and that we must expand the pleasure principle so that a maximum number of people can enjoy the goods of life. In modern times this doctrine has been championed by such thinkers as Locke, Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and
Hussein Jasim Mohammed Al-Husseini
English Department
University of Misan
Amarah, Maysan, Iraq
Abstract
Oscar Wild's attitude to hedonism would not be of an ordinary variety. Thus, it becomes all the more necessary to focus this study on Hedonism - Its Philosophical Bases in intertwining connection with the extraordinary strange personality of Oscar Wilde. His mind during its vigorous growth of creativity for one decade and more oscillated from the Keatsian sensuousness to the upper reaches of saint- like illuminations, as one finds in his works such as De Profundis, The Soul of Man under Socialism as well as in some of his short poems. His attitude to hedonism or pleasure -pursuit …show more content…
The former claims that all people are motivated by the pursuit of pleasure. For example, we may say that we love virtue for its own sake, but the psychological hedonist will assert that it gives us pleasure to be virtuous. Even the ascetic who fasts and mortifies his body is really dominated by the pleasure ideal, according to this theory, for he probably finds a degree of enjoyment in such activities or he may find a masochistic pleasure in his own suffering.
The ethical hedonist asserts that pleasure is not always pursued in life, but that it ought to be man's exclusive goal. The ethical hedonist looks with scorn at self-imposed suffering and useless self-sacrifice. He counsels man to enjoy himself, and in this way attain complete happiness. Hedonism also has been divided according to its social outlook. Individualistic hedonism is interested only in our personal welfare. Represented by Aristippus and Epicurus, it neglects the welfare and advancement of society. On the other hand, universalistic hedonism believes that happiness has a social connotation and that we must expand the pleasure principle so that a maximum number of people can enjoy the goods of life. In modern times this doctrine has been championed by such thinkers as Locke, Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and