We’ve all heard of hedonism, or the pursuit of pleasure. People with hedonistic tendencies prioritise two things: themselves and what feels good.

The often neglected brother of hedonism is eudaimonism, or the pursuit of good. People with eudaimonistic tendencies prioritise two things: humans and doing good.

Self-help books love to criticise hedonists. These authors often label hedonistic acts as stupid as these fail to consider long-term consequences. “Do what your future self would thank you for”, as the saying goes. In other words, choose eudaimonism. To prove their point, authors use extreme examples to illustrate the importance of being eudaimonistic.

Hedonistic	Eudaimonistic
Choosing a job for the money	Choosing a job for its impact on the world
Eating fast food	Eating healthier, less tasty food
Procrastinating on a task	Doing what you’re meant to be doing

But let’s hold on a second. There is one glaring problem here.

Often, the line between hedonism and eudaimonism is blurred because of the simple but critical question: what does it mean to do good? Perhaps it means to better the world. Right, but in what way? The Christian might tell you that doing good means spreading the gospel to the ends of the Earth. The animal rights activist might tell you that doing good means eliminating animal suffering by humans. The artist might tell you that doing good means making good art.

The point is that good is different for everybody and without knowing other people’s values, criticising hedonism is dishonest. If your definition of good involves being happy, hedonism is inseparable from your goals.

So perhaps we should stop telling people to “reject short-term pleasure for long-term good”, as this is vague and difficult to apply. Instead, a better rule of thumb might simply be: follow your values.