Before it can even reason, every creature flees pain and seeks pleasure: this is where nature shows us where the good lies.

Supports

Epicurus, Aristippus ·

Let us look for the good not in theories, but where nature speaks for itself, before education and opinion have overlaid it: in the newborn and in the animal, still untouched by any prejudice.
And spontaneously, with no one teaching them, they seek pleasure and flee pain: this is the first movement of the living, the one that no reasoning had to produce.
What every creature thus pursues for its own sake, and never for the sake of anything else, is what we call a final end; and pleasure is indeed sought for itself, whereas wealth, health, or honors are sought only for the contentment they bring.

Therefore So pleasure is not one good among others, but the end to which all the rest refers: the highest good that nature itself marks out.

How far does this reasoning convince you?

Not at all

Entirely

Deepenings

Mill's proof

offers another road: the only proof that a thing is visible is that people see it; likewise, the only proof that a thing is desirable is that people actually desire it.
Now each person desires their own happiness, and does not desire it for the sake of anything else: happiness is therefore, for each, an end in itself; and what holds for each holds for all.

Therefore So happiness is a desirable end, and indeed the only one we pursue for its own sake: everything else is desired only as a means to it.

How far does this reasoning convince you?

Not at all

Entirely

Put to the test

Objection