According to Aristotle, Happiness is the final good in which people strive for in life. So how does pleasure play a part in this, if at all?
Aristotle uses Chapters 1-5 in book 10 to discuss several interesting parts of pleasure. He begins with the correct approach people should have towards pleasure, and even pain to some extent. This leads to arguments about pleasure, and then the distinction of how pleasure is a good, but not the good. He then shows how pleasure completes an activity and should not be thought of as a process.
Chapter one begins with the argument of whether of whether pleasure is the good or an “altogether base” (153). This idea in a way extends throughout Book 10 because Aristotle is constantly questioning the relationship between pleasure and the good, and how to accurately describe pleasure. Aristotle mentions Eudoxus in Chapter 2 to show the argument that pleasure is the good; he reasons that every living creature strives to make choices based on pleasure that will result in happiness, thus making it the most desired and ultimately the good. Yet, Aristotle argues that pleasure is not the good, but rather a good. We know from our earlier reading and class discussions that Aristotle believes happiness to be the final good, and he then shows Plato’s idea to illustrate how Eudoxus is incorrect. From my understanding, Plato understands pleasure to be a good that can be added to another good to achieve more happiness, which would not make it the final good, but just a good.
Aristotle expands on pleasure being a good and not the good in Chapter 3. He concludes that, “ the good is definite, whereas pleasure is indefinite because it admits of more and less” (155). This idea that there are different degrees of pleasure that people experience and achieve is also mentioned in Chapter 5. Aristotle also ties back in the notion of pain, and shows that people do not experience the same pleasure from some things; for example, eating strawberries provides pleasure to some people, while others can experience extreme pain because they are allergic.
For Aristotle, pleasure is seen more as an activity. Towards the end of Chapter 3, Aristotle concludes that the notion some people carry about pleasure being a becoming or process is wrong. He concludes in Chapter 4 that pleasure is “complete at any time” (158) which is simply not true about something that is being characterized as a process. And because it is complete, it can also be considered a whole, so then it cannot be in the state of becoming. He instead believes pleasure to complete an activity.
In the end, I think Aristotle does an excellent job showing the different characteristics of pleasure and is able to answer the question of why do people strive for pleasure. His response is that through pleasure, people are allowed to complete their activities, which results in a complete life; and this complete life allows it to be choiceworthy, and result in the person being happy. And, in the end, happiness is the good that everyone is striving for attaining (159), therefore showing how pivotal pleasure, as the concept of completing an activity, is to achieving the final good of happiness.
1 comment:
It is understandable how pleasure could be seen as a process because an individual takes certain steps as though in process to fulfill a pleasurable result. However, as you say, pleasure is always completed while a process is continuous. The only thing I am still a little confused about is when Aristotle says that "pleasure is indefinite," does he mean one's ability to seek pleasure is indefinite or actual pleasure itself? If it is the latter wouldn't that contradict the idea that pleasure is "complete at any time?"
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