Happiness is arguably as the most important aspect to achieve in everybody's life. However its definition and understanding is varied for each people. In defining happiness, hedonism is one of the most important school of thought in philosophy. It can be useful to define happiness, especially the nature of happiness that is always quite debatable. There two types of hedonist theories of happiness; the narrow hedonism and the preference hedonism. Both of the theories although have some basic similarities but also have some differences that will be discussed on this essay. Later, it is argued that preference hedonism is a more plausible theory compared to narrow hedonism.
Hedonism is brought by some well-known 19th century British philosophers; Mill Bentham and Sidgwick who were part of classical utilitarian tradition. Utilitarian principles see the life through the measurement of pleasure and pain. Thus in order to gain a good life, the pleasure should be maximized and pain is minimum. This is a kind of effective theories in which the utilitarian define happiness in terms of feelings. Mill (1969, pg. 210) states "By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure. Hedonism is part of this effective theories other than the effective state theories. Different to the effective state theories, hedonism only includes pleasure or pleasant feelings as the cause of happiness, without the involvement of other effective states. However, happiness hedonism also split into two different categories, the narrow hedonism which is defended by Bentham and Mill, and the preference hedonism which is associated with Sidgwick. These two types of happiness hedonism are different in some aspects that could be led to interesting arguments about which theory is more plausible. .
Narrow or sensation hedonism assumes that pleasure is the only significant substance that effects happiness.