Genealogia e as raízes da recepção moderna do princípio da utilidade: de Pierre Gassendi a Thomas Hobbes

Abstract

The concept of utility has its roots in philosophy of Epicurus, for whom experience and sensations were fundamental elements for knowledge and the pursuit of imperturbability of the soul (ataraxia). His hedonism sought the absence of pain (aponia) and distinguished mental pleasures into kinetic and catathematic, prioritising the latter over the former by advocating a hidden life
without excess. The epicureanism was a misunderstood and stigmatized philosophical tradition, often confused with the radical hedonism of the Cyrenaics. Christian reception degraded it, even though it assimilated selective elements. Only with Renaissance humanism, notably through Pierre Gassendi, was Epicureanism rescued from the philosophical limbo which it found itself, adapting it to the demands of faith and modern science. Gassendiʼs philosophical alchemy was fundamental in reintroducing hedonism into European philosophical debate. In Great Britain, the revaluation of Epicureanism was driven by natural philosophy and a growing interest in atomism. Thinkers such as Walter Charleton and members of the Royal Society helped to reconcile this current with religious orthodoxy, consolidating a paradigm shift on British soil that found its central axis in the principle of utility, detaching it from theological explanations. Thomas Hobbes, although not strictly an Epicurean, incorporated materialism and a focus on sensory perception into his ideas. The sovereign state, resulting from the social contract, emerges as a necessary institution to regulate individual desire and ensure order and peace. The utility can be observed in the rise of the political phenomenon of political hedonism, understood in terms of the pursuit of happiness and security by self-interested individuals.