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Rh teaches that these are to be pursued and shunned only under certain restraints; that is, only on the terms which prudence dictates. The philosophic position of Aristippus was this: he accepted as an undeniable truth the fact that pleasure was fixed by nature as man's ultimate aim; but seeing that this end would be defeated by reckless and inordinate indulgence, it exhorted to moderation and self-restraint; exhortations which were much needed, inasmuch as nature, although she speaks to man in very distinct and decided terms when she summons him to enjoyment, delivers herself in terms by no means so articulate when she warns him to refrain.

11. The class of systems to which the hedonism of Aristippus belongs have existed during every period, the earliest as well as the latest, in the history of ethical philosophy. They are known under the names of Hedonism, or the philosophy of pleasure, from ; of Epicureanism, or the philosophy of ease and enjoyment, from Epicurus, its founder; of Eudaimonism, or the philosophy of happiness, from , and in modern times they pass generally under the name of Utilitarianism. All these schemes, in whatever minor respects they may differ, agree in this respect, that they accept as a fact not to be gainsaid the truth that the summum bonum, the supreme good for man, is his own felicity; and that this felicity is for the most part, or principally, of a sensational character. The systems thus characterised