The Fifth Influence

THE FIFTH INFLUENCE
OR, THE DIALECTICS OF PLEASURE
"Th is book is about everything you ever wanted to know about pleasure, but
did not know where to fi nd the answers."
- Alexander Ovsich
Ecclesiastes 3-12 and 3-13: I know that there is nothing better for them
than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; also that it is
Gods gift to man that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure
in all his toil.
- 8-15 it says. And I commend enjoym- ent for man has no good thing
under the sun but to eat and drink, and enjoy himself, for this will go
with him in his toil through the days of life which God gives him under
the sun;
"To my knowledge, only one psychological theory of motivational interactions
has been put forward: Cabanac holds that pleasure is the common currency
guaranteeing the trade-off necessary for achieving the ranking of concurrent
motivations. In other words, in his view, organisms decide to commit to the
activity that maximizes pleasure."
- Patrick Anselme
"Th e reasons that Michel Cabanac gives for his views on pleasure are good
reasons, because they are supported by arguments about evidence, and
not simply opinions based upon introspection. Indeed, the main pleasure
that I gained from this book came from reading about the very elegant
experiments that Michel and his colleagues have conducted over the years.
In this respect, I fi nd it hard to believe that other people's experience will
be diff erent from mine."
- David McFarland