The Science of Pleasure
The Third in a Series of Conferences on Neuroculture

Video

In secular culture, pleasure is widely regarded as the supreme value, the goal for which one lives, and the justification for one’s labors. Although religions through the centuries have protested against pleasure as a distraction from spiritual goals, the voice of religion is now hesitant and ineffective, and pressure from consumer culture goes largely unresisted. But what exactly is pleasure?

In his book, How Pleasure Works: The New Science on Why We Like What We Like (Norton, June 2010), Paul Bloom, professor of psychology at Yale University, seeks to answer this question. After his presentation, psychiatrist Peter Kramer and philosopher Roger Scruton discussed his findings and what they mean for our understanding of human behavior. Sally Satel, M.D., resident scholar at AEI, moderated the discussion.

About the Author

 

Sally
Satel

 

Roger
Scruton
  • Roger Scruton, a writer, philosopher, and public commentator, has written widely on political and cultural issues as well as on aesthetics, with particular attention to music and architecture. The author of more than thirty books, his most recent ones include Culture Counts: Faith and Healing in a World Besieged (Encounter Books, 2007); A Political Philosophy (Continuum Books, 2006), a response to the development and decline of western civilization; and The West and the Rest (ISI Books, 2001), an analysis of the values held by the West and how they are distinct from those held by other cultures. Mr. Scruton is also a founding editor of The Salisbury Review as well as the founder of Claridge Press, which is now part of Continuum International Publishing Group. He writes a column on cultural matters for The American Spectator and on wine for The New Statesman in Britain. At AEI, Mr. Scruton researches environmental protection from a cultural and philosophical angle.

  • Phone: 2028627168
    Email: roger.scruton@aei.org
  • Assistant Info

    Name: Elizabeth DeMeo
    Phone: 2028624876
    Email: elizabeth.demeo@aei.org
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