Podrobný výpis o publikaci

Social reality is distinguished under the conditions of late modernity by an ambivalent character in the form of a series of paradoxes and diverse ambiguities. The polar perception of reality as consisting of structures of mutually interacting and coexisting forces of opposites, which are experienced by social protagonists as concurrently acting qualities of dual significance, further contribute to this character. Hedonism as an approach to life is also distinguished by duality, whereby ambiguous life practices aimed at achieving the same principle based on the achievement of joy and pleasure develop in parallel. On the one hand, the polarity of predatory hedonism filled with boundless consumerism and the intensification of the present is systematically reinforced by the marketing industry, while on the other hand expressions of alternative hedonism form as the spontaneous and reflective practice of consumers looking for the measure of things and for peace. Hedonism therefore represents a possible source of ambivalent experience for consumers who self-centredly desire an ever greater degree of independence and sensual pleasure and at the same time call for the preservation of the existence of a responsible spirit oriented towards the future and resisting the impulses for instant gratification.