Gilbert Ryle says in his book "Dilemmas"
(Cambridge University Press, 1969):
"some pioneers in psychological theory, with natural
overconfidence, formerly tried to hitch on to the
notion of pleasure. Thinking of their scientific
mission as that of duplicating for the world of mind
what physicists had done for the world of matter,
they looked for mental counterparts to the forces
in terms of which dynamic explanations were given
of the movement of bodies. Which introspectible
phenomena would do for purposive human conduct
what pressure, impact, friction and attraction do
for the accelerations and decelerations of physical
objects? Desire and pleasure, aversion and pain
seemd admirably qualified to play the required
parts [...]"
"the notion of pleasure has in our own day ceased
to be the topic of heated controversies - though
not, in my opinion, for the reason that philosophers,
preachers, psychologists, economists and educators
have at last got its logical role agreed. They have,
I guess, dropped the subject, because the nineteenth-
century thinkers ran it to death."
Unfortunately he does not name any references. What
pioneers and 19th century thinkers has Ryle in mind ?
William James ? Herbert Spencer ? Sigmund Freud
and his "pleasure principle" ?
-J.
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