Term (Greek: joy, pleasure, delight, pleasure, sensual desire) for the doctrine founded in antiquity by the philosopher Aristippus (435-355 BC), according to which the highest ethical principle is the pursuit of sensual pleasure and enjoyment. The philosopher Epicurus (341-271 BC), on the other hand, describes pleasure as the principle of a successful life. According to him, ataraxia (a state of complete freedom from pain/concern) is also to be regarded as the highest pleasure.
Definition of the term
In common parlance, hedonism is understood to mean an egoistic attitude to life that is (only) orientated towards material pleasures. In this sense, the term is often used pejoratively and interpreted as a sign of decadence. Epicureanism, however, is usually understood in a more positive sense (altruistic = selfless, altruistic, self-sacrificing). The Greek poet Anacreon (~580-495 BC) also represented hedonistic tendencies in his songs about love, wine and cheerful sociability, as did the Roman poet Horace (65-8 BC) with the motto "Carpe diem" (enjoy/use the day, literally "pick the day").
Wine description
When judging a wine, hedonistic is understood to mean the deliberately subjective description with ambiguous adjectives such as beautiful, pleasant, unpleasant, extraordinary, convincing, bad, inspiring, impressive, unique, stunning, dreamlike, enchanting, animating, unforgettable, gripping and similar, or strongly abbreviated with "tastes" or "doesn't taste". The "normal" untrained wine connoisseur mainly judges a wine hedonistically - often in the short form. The phenomenon of the so-called holiday wine is also characterised by hedonism.
However, when assessing the best wines in the Swiss canton of Vaud with the Terravin seal "Lauriers de Platine Terravin", a hedonistic judgement is expressly desired. As a rule, however, there are standardised, largely equally understood expressions among experts that describe a wine objectively according to defined sensory criteria (see under wine description). This is also the usual form for official wine tests and wine competitions (see under wine evaluation). However, it is not possible to do completely without hedonistic terms.
