[From Greek hedone: pleasure.]
(ethics) The principle that the fundamental standard of ethical judgment should be pleasure. Although the term has connotations of sensualism and emotionalism, philosophical hedonists (such as those in the tradition of Epicureanism) advocate an enlightened hedonism that is often a kind of naturalism. Although hedonism is usually a species of individualism, a theory such as utilitarianism calls for "the greatest pleasure for the greatest number" and thus could be construed as a kind of universalized hedonism.