Aristotle Account of Pleasure

Aristotle Account of Pleasure

Introduction

Aristotle's son Nichomachus probably compiled The Nicomachean Ethics is one of three ethical treatises deriving from the thought of Aristotle—shortly after the philosopher's death. However, a specific date cannot be ascertained, Nicomachus himself is known to have died young in battle, and he must have done the work fairly soon after his father died in 322. It seems that Nicomachus drew on lecture notes and on a treatise, the Eudemian Ethics—compiled by Aristotle's pupil Eudemus which represented an earlier stage in his father's thought. Aristotle's third discussion of ethics, entitled Magna Moralia (Great Ethics) is probably a compilation drawn from the other two works by a successor member of Aristotle's peripatetic school of philosophy.

Aristotle defines human beings as political animals. For him, then, the science of ethical human behaviour belongs to the realm of politics, and polities like the city-states of Greece are organized to promote human happiness. To accomplish that, however, one first needs to know what makes people happy. Next, one needs to know what sorts of social arrangements and institutions maximize the probability of happiness.

Aristotle's Account of Pleasure

In The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle proposes that happiness results from the exercise of the virtues in human nature. These are of two sorts, intellectual and moral virtues, both of which derive from the human soul. In addition to animating the processes that sustain human life, the soul contains the rational intellect, from which flow the intellectual virtues. The soul also contains the human appetites and passions; these determine the second part of the soul, human character. When free human will subordinates appetites and passions to the power of reason, moral virtues result.

Problem Regarding Pleasure Is Aristotle Concerned

The book examines moral virtue more closely; this Aristotle defines as habitually behaving with moderation—observing the golden mean. Those who legislate for the state assist individuals in achieving happiness by making laws that encourage moderate and rational behaviour. Parents assist children in achieving happiness by training them to have good habits that are associated with positive moral qualities. "We become temperate," says Aristotle, "by abstaining from pleasures." We can, likewise, "best abstain from pleasures when we become temperate." Moral virtue results from habitually making temperate choices. The virtue of courage is, for example, the mean between fear that leads to cowardice and rash overconfidence. Liberality or generosity, a virtue, falls halfway on a scale between prodigality and meanness, both ...