https://platoedsim.org/posts/Recent content in Posts on The Pleasure Principlehttps://platoedsim.org/images/og-image.pnghttps://platoedsim.org/images/og-image.pngHugo -- 0.131.0en-usFri, 03 Apr 2026 06:48:32 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/guilt-about-feeling-good/Fri, 03 Apr 2026 06:48:32 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/guilt-about-feeling-good/Why we feel bad about feeling good, and what that reveals about our confused moral thinking.https://platoedsim.org/posts/pain-feels-bad/Thu, 02 Apr 2026 06:22:14 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/pain-feels-bad/If we can't agree on anything else about morality, we can at least agree that pain feels bad.https://platoedsim.org/posts/its-natural-fallacy/Wed, 01 Apr 2026 19:26:52 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/its-natural-fallacy/Natural doesn't mean good—cancer is natural too.https://platoedsim.org/posts/your-dinner-is-a-philosophy/Wed, 01 Apr 2026 07:16:51 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/your-dinner-is-a-philosophy/Every dinner decision reveals what you think matters most in life.https://platoedsim.org/posts/free-will-punishment/Tue, 31 Mar 2026 18:13:20 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/free-will-punishment/What happens to justice if our choices aren't really our own?https://platoedsim.org/posts/the-problem-that-breaks-belief/Tue, 31 Mar 2026 06:07:39 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/the-problem-that-breaks-belief/Why a perfectly good God and genuine suffering can't coexist.https://platoedsim.org/posts/stoics-epicureans-disagreement/Mon, 30 Mar 2026 18:41:54 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/stoics-epicureans-disagreement/The real philosophical divide between Stoics and Epicureans wasn't about pleasure vs. virtue.https://platoedsim.org/posts/nietzsche-wasnt-celebrating/Mon, 30 Mar 2026 06:37:46 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/nietzsche-wasnt-celebrating/When Nietzsche declared God is dead, he wasn't throwing a party.https://platoedsim.org/posts/youre-probably-already-a-utilitarian/Sun, 29 Mar 2026 18:17:09 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/youre-probably-already-a-utilitarian/Most people already think like utilitarians in their daily decisions, even if they've never heard the term.https://platoedsim.org/posts/camus-and-the-absurd-life/Sun, 29 Mar 2026 06:18:08 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/camus-and-the-absurd-life/Why Camus thought life was fundamentally absurd and why he was okay with that.https://platoedsim.org/posts/epicurus-bread-water-hedonist/Sat, 28 Mar 2026 18:22:03 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/epicurus-bread-water-hedonist/Why the original hedonist lived simply and what that means for how we think about pleasure.https://platoedsim.org/posts/fact-value-gap/Sat, 28 Mar 2026 07:14:44 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/fact-value-gap/Science excels at describing reality but can't tell us what we should care about.https://platoedsim.org/posts/ought-from-is/Fri, 27 Mar 2026 19:28:09 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/ought-from-is/Why stating facts about the world doesn't automatically tell us what we should do about it.https://platoedsim.org/posts/not-believing-vs-believing-not/Fri, 27 Mar 2026 06:34:31 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/not-believing-vs-believing-not/The subtle but important difference between lacking belief in God and actively believing God doesn't exist.https://platoedsim.org/posts/why-purposelessness-might-be-good-news/Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:04:59 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/why-purposelessness-might-be-good-news/If life has no built-in purpose, that means you get to choose your own.https://platoedsim.org/posts/pleasure-vs-happiness/Thu, 26 Mar 2026 06:01:38 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/pleasure-vs-happiness/Pleasure is temporary and specific; happiness is a longer story about how your life is going.https://platoedsim.org/posts/choices-might-not-be-yours/Wed, 25 Mar 2026 18:25:55 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/choices-might-not-be-yours/The unsettling possibility that your decisions were made before you knew you were making them.https://platoedsim.org/posts/why-philosophers-trolley-problem/Wed, 25 Mar 2026 06:42:59 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/why-philosophers-trolley-problem/The trolley problem seems ridiculous, but it reveals something important about how we make moral decisions.https://platoedsim.org/posts/what-atheists-get-wrong/Tue, 24 Mar 2026 19:09:00 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/what-atheists-get-wrong/Most atheist arguments miss the point because they're solving the wrong problem.https://platoedsim.org/posts/russells-teapot-burden-of-proof/Tue, 24 Mar 2026 09:21:00 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/russells-teapot-burden-of-proof/Why the person making the claim has to provide the evidence.https://platoedsim.org/posts/simplest-argument-against-god/Tue, 24 Mar 2026 09:19:00 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/simplest-argument-against-god/Why the burden of proof matters more than elaborate theological debates.https://platoedsim.org/posts/limits-of-mattering/Tue, 24 Mar 2026 09:17:00 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/limits-of-mattering/Science can't tell you what matters, but neither can anything else—and that's actually liberating.https://platoedsim.org/posts/hume-guillotine-ought-from-is/Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:11:00 +0000https://platoedsim.org/posts/hume-guillotine-ought-from-is/David Hume spotted something troubling about moral arguments: they all seem to make an impossible leap from description to prescription.