What is "sensualism"

Sensualism \Sen"su*al*ism\, n. [Cf. F. sensualisme.]

1. The condition or character of one who is sensual; subjection to sensual feelings and appetite; sensuality.

2. (Philos.) The doctrine that all our ideas, or the operations of the understanding, not only originate in sensation, but are transformed sensations, copies or relics of sensations; sensationalism; sensism.

3. (Ethics) The regarding of the gratification of the senses as the highest good.
   --Krauth-Fleming.

1803, "the philosophical doctrine that the senses are the sole source of knowledge," from sensual + -ism. From 1813 as "addiction to sensual indulgence."

n. 1 Addiction to or obsession with sensual pleasures or affairs 2 (context ethics English) The doctrine that gratification of the senses is the highest good. 3 (context epistemology English) The doctrine that all knowledge not only originates in sensation, but are transformed sensations, copies or relics of sensations; sensationalism.

1. n. desire for sensual pleasures [syn: sensuality, sensualness]

2. (philosophy) the ethical doctrine that feeling is the only criterion for what is good [syn: sensationalism]

Sensualism is the persistent or excessive pursuit of sensual pleasures and interests. In philosophy, it refers to the ethical doctrine that feeling is the only criterion for what is good. In epistemology it is a doctrine whereby sensations and perception are the basic and most important form of true cognition. It may oppose abstract ideas. This ideogenetic question was long ago put forward in Greek philosophy ( Stoicism, Epicureanism) and further developed to the full by the English Sensualists ( John Locke, David Hume) and the English Associationists ( Thomas Brown, David Hartley, Joseph Priestley). In the 19th century it was very much taken up by the Positivists ( Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Hippolyte Taine, Émile Littré)