Page 126 - Pure Life 36
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Pleasure from the Perspective of… A. Ghanbarian & A. Asgari Yazdi (125
more material pleasure and limited to the world and its
being further removed from material pleasures.
material pain. Bentham restricted his view
However, some schools of to society, government
thought, such as heavenly institutions, legislation, and
religions, do not consider punishment; While spiritual
pleasure and pain to be purely pleasures are deeper, more
materialistic and believe in stable, and noble than fleeting
the afterlife, whereas they also material pleasures:
consider spiritual pleasures For an action to conform to
and pains. Therefore, in the the principle of utility, its
definition of happiness, they tendency to augment the
do not only focus on happiness of the community
experiencing material pleasures must be greater than any
but also give importance to tendency it might have to
spiritual pleasures, and they diminish it. (Bentham,
value material pleasures only 2017: 7)
up to the point where they do
not prevent one from In the above passage,
experiencing more valuable Bentham is explaining the
spiritual pleasures. (Gharavian, principle of utility, his words
2012: 73-74) are limited to society and
Bentham did not mention worldly life. He did not have
spiritual pleasure or long-term a positive or favorable view
benefits in his theory, and he of religion and religious
did not urge people toward it. people, and by associating
He interpreted his theory as asceticism and self-denial
