oursoleconcernatpresentiswithobjectionstendingtoshowtheintrinsicimpracticabilityofHedonismasarationalmethod。
Wearemet，inthefirstplace，byanobjectionwhich，ifvalidatall，mustbeadmittedtobedecisive。IthasbeenaffirmedbyGreenthat``pleasureasfeeling，indistinctionfromitsconditionsthatarenotfeelings，cannotbeconceived’’。Ifso，RationalHedonismwouldcertainlybeimpossible:
butthepropositionseemsequallyopposedtocommonsense，andtotheuniversalassumptionofempiricalpsychologists；who，ininvestigatingelaboratelyandsystematicallytheconditions，mentalandphysical，ofpleasureandpain，necessarilyassumethatthesefeelingscanbedistinguishedinthoughtfromtheir``conditionswhicharenotfeelings’’。IalsofindthatthewriterhimselffromwhomIhavequoted，inalatertreatise，conductslongargumentsrespectingpleasurewhichareonlyintelligibleifthedistinctionbetweenpleasureanditsconditionsisthoroughlygraspedandsteadilycontemplated。Indeedhecarriesadistinctionofthiskindtoanextremepointofsubtlety；asberequiresustodistinguishthe``self-satisfactionsoughtinalldesirethatamountstowill’’fromthe``pleasure’’that``thereisinallself-satisfactionifattained’’:whereasothermoralistsregardself-satisfactionasaspeciesofpleasure。Tomaintainthatwecandistinguishpleasurefromself-satisfactionandcannotdistinguishitfromitsconditions，seemstometooviolentaparadoxtoneedrefutation。
ItispossiblethatGreenmayonlymeanthatpleasurecannotbethoughttoexistapartfromconditionswhicharenotfeelings，andthatitnecessarilyvarieswithanyvariationinitsconditions。ThestatementthusinterpretedIdonotdeny:butitisquiteirrelevanttothequestionwhetherpleasurecanbeestimatedseparatelyfromitsconditions，orwhetherpleasuresreceivedunderdifferentconditionscanbequantitativelycompared。Icannothavethepleasureofwitnessingatragedyorthepleasureofwitnessingafarce，withouthavingalongwitheitheracomplexofinnumerablethoughtsandimages，verydiverseinqualityinthetwocases:butthisdoesnotpreventmefromdecidingconfidentlywhetherthetragedyorthefarcewillaffordmemostpleasureonthewhole。
passtoanotherobjectionmadebythesamewritertotheHedonisticconceptionofthesupremeendofactionas``thegreatestpossiblesumofpleasures’’。