Morals and Pleasure

StormWarrior

Do you think humans can be morally good if we're only ever motivated by a desire for pleasure?

johnnyskeleton

Are we only ever motivated by a desire for pleasure?

If you make the distincition between morally good (i.e. good intention) and ethically good (i.e. good on more objective grounds) then I suppose you could be ethically good while seeking pleasure.

Also, if your pleasure is derived from other people, by helping them you are doing something good, which you intend to be beneficial to another person, but which you also receive pleasure of them thanking you, or at least the satisfaction that you helped someone.

So yes, unless your argument is that any pleasure derived from a good act makes it morally suspect, and if so maybe.

DadaKopf

This is an either/or question, which isn't suitable in this context.

Kell

StormWarrior wrote:

Do you think humans can be morally good if we're only ever motivated by a desire for pleasure?

Reading a good book at the moment called "The origins of ". A bugger. Forgotton the full title. Anyways, its an examination of why we as humans, who normally act out of selfishness, work extremely well together and have built the best civilisation out of working together as opposed to selfishly.

The author supposes that all acts of altruism in some way benefit, not just the individual, but the sum of its parts i.e. its genes. If I help someone out and they do something that improves my living conditions per se, my act improves the chances of my genes being reproduced in an environment more condusive to healthy offspring.

Motivation towards pleasure is not a bad thing but there is also motivation towards things that do not aggravate us as well. Motivation towards pleasure and away from aggravation saves some of us from staying in poor relationships/jobs etc. Motivation towards pleasure makes a better life for us as individuals, while having no detrimental impact on our moral capabilities.

Example- a person can move towards amassing money or personal posession whilst still retaining the ability to be altruistic, noble, respectful and with self respect so I dont get the correlation between seeking pleasure and morality.

StormWarrior- are you posing your question purely on the motivation towards physical or material pleasure?

K-

Scigaithris

StormWarrior wrote:

Do you think humans can be morally good if we're only ever motivated by a desire for pleasure?

StormWarrior, for clarification purposes, can you conceptually define what is meant by "morally good" and "pleasure"? Also, would defining the context and population be important too? There can be multiple definitions for each, and without a clear understanding of what is being asked at the onset of discussion, there could be unnecessary confusion?