Saturday, 19 July 2025

The Hedonic-Therapeutic, Right-Left axis of morality

Because the assumption of modernity is that human existence is bounded by conception and death - outwith there is nothing of our-selves - therefore the morality is one based upon living human experience. 

The relevant aspect of human experience adopted by modern morality (perhaps inevitably) relates to pleasure-pain - in motivational terms this is hedonic (pleasure seeking) or therapeutic (suffering avoiding). 

This roughly corresponds to what people term as Right and Left of the political spectrum - those on the Right are broadly orientated to maximizing positive and pleasurable experiences while those on the Left have a more therapeutic stance - in that their ultimate justification is the relief of negative experiences, alleviation of suffering. 

And this is why the Left sees itself as a higher morality than the Right - in that therapeutic alleviation of suffering is seen as more sophisticated, altruistic, compassionate etc - than trying to create as much positive emotionality as possible.

The Right sees our finite life as something we should make the most of (for ourselves and - some- others; the Left as something we should get through with the least misery (for ourselves perhaps, but mainly justified in terms of therapy for others). 

All this is bizarre and incoherent and unfounded as a basis for "morality" - but that is what we've actually got. 



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