1 Pleasure and its Contraries

Abstract: What is the contrary of pleasure? “Pain ” is one common answer. This paper argues that pleasure instead has two natural contraries: unpleasure and hedonic indifference. This view is defended by drawing attention to two often-neglected concepts: the formal relation of polar opposition and the psychological state of hedonic indifference. The existence of mixed feelings, it is argued, does not threaten the contrariety of pleasure and unpleasure. What is the contrary of pleasure? “Pain ” is one common answer. This paper argues that pleasure instead has two contraries: unpleasure and hedonic indifference. This view is defended by drawing attention to two often-neglected concepts: the formal relation of polar opposition and the psychological state of hedonic indifference, here called “indolence”. Section 1 introduces the concepts of pleasure, pleasantness, contrariety, and contradiction, and argues that the contradictories of pleasures do not constitute a natural kind. Section 2 introduces the concept of polar opposition and argues that the real polar opposite of pleasure is unpleasure. Section 3 maintains that indolence is the neutral opposite of pleasure and argues (i) that indolences do exist, (ii) that they are sui generis episodes, and (iii) that they do not necessarily stand directly in the middle of the pleasure/unpleasure continuum. Section 4 addresses an objection to the project of identifying the contraries of pleasure, to the effect that mixed feelings entail that pleasure and unpleasure are independent orthogonal dimensions of experience. 1. Hedonic contrarieties 1.1. Pleasure and pleasantnes