The Economic
Foundation of Art
Every organism, whether it be social or biological, if it is to survive, must seek pleasure and avoid pain. Without accepting any particular theory of ethics, it is safe at least to say that the things which give pleasure are better than those which give pain. The best social relations are those securing the greatest amount of happiness to those who maintain them.
Pleasure consists in the satisfaction of impulses and desires. Hitherto the struggle for existence has been so hard that the great majority of mankind have found all their energies exhausted in the effort simply to avoid hunger and cold, and the idea of a society that would secure even
