Full Idea
Hedonism failed because it offered as an end of human aspiration an object in which the human spirit, pledged by its own nature to self-betterment, …could never find satisfaction.
Gist of Idea
Hedonism offers no satisfaction, because what we desire is self-betterment
Source
report of T.H. Green (works [1875]) by John H. Muirhead - The Service of the State II
Book Reference
Muirhead,John H.: 'The Service of the State: T.H. Green' [John Murray 2021], p.27
A Reaction
It is always both sad and amusing to see that 150 years ago someone wrote of a doctrine that is still with us that it has 'failed'. Nowadays they try to say the same of physicalism. His objection rests on optimism about humanity.
Related Idea
Idea 22032 Fichte's key claim was that the subjective-objective distinction must itself be subjective [Fichte, by Pinkard]