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ETHICAL THEORY SURVEYED 397
desire our own pleasure; there is, secondly, the view
(B) that we can desire other things, but that we ought
only to desire our own pleasure, since only our own
pleasure is good; and there is the view (C) that we ought
to desire the greatest amount, of pleasure on the whole
or, alternatively, the greatest pleasure of the greatest
number, on the ground that all pleasure is good* I have
already tried to show 1 that views (B) and (C) are inconsistent
with view (A), since, if we can only desire our
own pleasure it is nonsense to say that we ought to do
so, or that we ought to desire the greatest pleasure of the
greatest number. I do not think, however, that any one of
these three variants of the pleasure philosophy is tenable.
Many of the objections to which they are exposed have
already been indicated. I shall, therefore, here content myself
with a summary statement before proceeding to criticism.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF HEDONISM: THE SMALL GIRL
AND THE MARTYR. I will begin with the doctrine
that men are so constituted that they can only desire their
own pleasure. Of this doctrine which is usually known as
Psychological Hedonism, there is, so far as I know, no
logical disproof. Moreover, it can be rendered exceedingly
plausible; how plausible can be shown by examining one
or two cases in which people apparently act from motives
which contradict the doctrine, and then analysing these
motives on hedonist lines.
Let us, for example, suppose that two children, B a
little boy, and G a little girl, are each presented with five
shillings at Christmas. B, aiming only at his own immediate
pleasure, spends his five shillings on sweets, gorges them,
and is sick. Elderly relatives censure him for selfishness
and tead him homilies on gluttony, G, however, spends
her five shillings on presents
for the elderly relatives and
is duly praised for unselfishness and willingness to put
the pleasures of other people before her own* If her action
can be taken at its face value, Psychological Hedonism
1 Sec Chapter IX, pp. 334* 335-