ABSTRACT
In using the name hedonism for that ethical theory which makes happiness the end of action, and distinguishing hedonism into the two kinds, egoistic and universalistic, alleges its implied belief to be that pleasures and pains are commensurable. In his criticism on (empirical) egoistic hedonism, Mr. Sidgwick says that the fundamental assumption of Hedonism, clearly stated, is that all feelings can be arranged in a certain scale where the desirability of pleasantness of each bears a definite ratio to that of all the others. Though primitive men have no words for either happiness or justice, yet even among them an approach to the conception of justice is traceable. The doctrine that perfection or excellence of nature should be the object of pursuit, is in one sense true; for it tacitly recognizes that ideal form of being which the highest life implies, and to which Evolution tends.
