The psychologist can also enter the argument. How does the human pleasure system actually work? ‘How to live a pleasurable life’ is as much a question of science as it is of philosophy. Addiction is an unfortunate fact for the hedonist (just as the dangers of repression are unfortunate facts for the Stoic). Positive Psychology has very clear recommendations – though little to say on the wilder side of things: it seems to assume a fundamentally sensible approach to life. I rat

Watching a documentary last night, where someone quoted Walter Pater. I was intrigued, and did some research. He was a Victorian academic and essayist, flourishing from the mid 1860s till his death in 1894, influencing people like Oscar Wilde, who was fifteen years younger than him. He was an expert on the Renaissance, and seems to have been a key figure in making the world aware of the works of Botticelli. As you can see from the picture, he also sported a rather over-the-to