Great Tradition in Ethics

Untuk keperluan disertasi, saya mencari pengertian hedonisme yang digunakan oleh Toshihiko Izutsu untuk menggambarkan pandangan dunia orang Arab pada masa Nabi.

Di tengah pembacaan, saya menemukan kalimat yang menarik: In opposition to Aristippus, Epicurus maintains that the duration of pleasures is more important than their intensity in achieving happiness. Consequently, he argues that the mental pleasures are in general superior to the physical, since they are longer lasting, albeit less intense. Although he finds the physical pleasures unobjectionable in themselves, he contends that the pursuit of them for their own sake does not lead to happiness, but to the reverse (see Denise (et.al), 1996: 49).

Ya, kesenangan mental lah yang sejatinya diburu, bukan material!