Intrinsic Value and the Hedonic Thesis

Sammanfattning: If hedonism is taken to be the view that all and only pleasures are the bearers of intrinsic value whilst also saying that complex things, such as states of affairs, can be ascribed intrinsic value, the hedonic thesis seems to be contradictory. Furthermore it has been argued that the hedonic thesis is inconsistent in its treatment of the notion of intrinsic value in another sense, namely that if the hedonic thesis is understood in the Sidgwickian sense, pleasures cannot be said to have intrinsic value due to the relational nature of the Sidgwickian understanding of pleasure. This paper argues that neither one of these problems is devastating for the hedonic thesis.