Keyword: «hedonism»

The article is an attempt to clarify the meaning as well as the research of the origin of one of the elements of the discourse about pleasure – the term "hedonism". Due to the author’s view, this should serve to boost the level of scientific research in the field of ethics, philosophy of culture, theory and history of culture, as it allows more accurate use of scientific and theoretical tools. Analysis of the basic sources (the classics of utilitarianism and liberalism), which is presented in the article, makes it possible to track down some aspects of the secularization of ethics in the 19th century, which largely contributes to the understanding of cultural transformations of the next Post-modern era.