How Important are Pleasure and Pain? Which, if Either, is Ultimate?

Epicurus’ idea that pleasure and pain constitute good and bad captured my attention the most. His belief that what is good is pleasurable and what’s bad is painful is very interesting to examine. Looking at the idea from a physical perspective, most humans realize that when something is wrong with the body, one often (although not always) experiences pain. For instance, if an individual has a cavity, his or her tooth hurts. If someone has a broken leg, then pain will be experienced in the leg that is broken. A link can be seen between things not working properly (bad) and the perception of pain. Likewise, the same can be said about things working properly and the feeling of good. However, far too often humans have to experience pain before they are willing to say that the body operating normally is pleasurable. I remember as a child being sick with the flu and thinking about how great it felt to not have the flu and have my body operating normally (good). This fits well with Epicurus’ thought that pain is the absence of pleasure.

While there undeniably is some kind of link between pleasure and pain with good and bad, I don’t think that good or bad are determined by what is pleasurable or painful. I would argue that holding the previously mentioned view leads to the belief of moral relativism. Pain and pleasure are not experienced in the same way by any two individuals. Since pain and pleasure vary from person to person, then what is good, and what is bad, must then vary from person to person. For instance, many people understand murder to create pain. (In this case let’s only think about emotional pain to the person committing the murder. Completely forget about the person being killed.) Therefore, murder is bad because it is painful. However, some individuals derive pleasure from killing another human being (think of certain serial killers). To them then, murder is good because it is pleasurable. Murder being bad for some while good for others would appear to be a case of moral relativism.

Despite some disagreements I have with Epicurus, I strongly support his idea that, pain is the absence of pleasure. I think most people would agree that heaven is good/pleasurable while hell is bad/painful. Christians believe that God is good and is the ultimate source of our pleasure. So, in this comparison of heaven versus hell, which defines the other (or which is ultimate)? Well, we know heaven to describe being in the direct presence of God (while this isn’t the best definition it generates the point) while hell is the absence of God. Expanding these definitions we can say that heaven is pleasurable while hell is the complete absence of pleasure. So, it would appear that pleasure is ultimate thus leading to the conclusion that pain is the absence of pleasure.