{"id":250,"date":"2021-03-29T11:12:11","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T11:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/chapter\/3-argument-that-it-is-not-a-quality-that-it-is-not-determined-that-it-is-a-motion-or-coming-into-being-pleasures-differ-in-kind\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T23:31:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T23:31:24","slug":"3-further-arguments-against-the-view-that-pleasure-is-evil","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/chapter\/3-further-arguments-against-the-view-that-pleasure-is-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"Section 3: Further arguments against the view that pleasure is evil"},"content":{"raw":"Nor again, if pleasure is not a quality, does it follow that it is not a good. For the activities of virtue are not qualities either, nor is happiness.\r\n\r\nThey say, however, that the good is determinate, while pleasure is indeterminate, because it admits of degrees. Now if it is from the feeling of pleasure that they judge thus, the same will be true of justice and the other virtues, in respect of which we plainly say that people of a certain character are more or less just or virtuous, and an action more or less in accordance with these virtues. For people may be more just or brave, and it is possible also to act justly or temperately more or less.\r\n\r\nBut if their judgement is based on the various pleasures, surely they are not stating the real cause, if in fact some pleasures are unmixed and others mixed. Again, just as health admits of degrees without being indeterminate, why should not pleasure? The same proportion is not found in all things, nor a single proportion always in the same thing, but it may be relaxed and yet persist up to a point, and it may differ in degree. The case of pleasure also may therefore be of this kind.\r\n\r\nAgain, they assume that the good is perfect while movements and comings into being are imperfect, and try to exhibit pleasure as being a movement and a coming into being. But they do not seem to be right even in saying that it is a movement. For speed and slowness are thought to be proper to every movement, and if a movement (for example, that of the universe) has not speed or slowness in itself, it has it in relation to something else. But neither of these things is true of pleasure. For while we may become<\/em> pleased quickly as we may become<\/em> angry quickly, we cannot be<\/em> pleased quickly, not even in relation to someone else, while we can walk, or grow, or the like, quickly. While, then, we can change quickly or slowly into<\/em> a state of pleasure, we cannot quickly exhibit the activity of pleasure, that is, we cannot quickly be<\/em> pleased. Again, how can pleasure be a coming into being? It is not thought that any chance thing can come out of any chance thing, but that a thing is dissolved into that out of which it comes into being. And pain would be the destruction of that of which pleasure is the coming into being.\r\n\r\nThey say, too, that pain is the lack of that which is according to nature, and pleasure is replenishment. But these experiences are bodily. If then pleasure is replenishment with that which is according to nature, that which feels pleasure will be that in which the replenishment takes place, namely, the body. But that is not thought to be the case. Therefore, the replenishment is not pleasure, though one could be pleased when replenishment is taking place, just as one could be pained if one was being operated on. [But that doesn't mean that the pain one is feeling and the fact that one is being operated on are the same thing. So also, the fact that one is being replenished and the feeling of pleasure are not the same thing.]\r\n\r\nThe opinion that pleasure is replenishment seems to be based on the pains and pleasures connected with nutrition; on the fact that when people have been short of food and have felt pain beforehand they are pleased by the replenishment of eating. But this does not happen with all pleasures. For the pleasures of learning and, among the sensuous pleasures, those of smell, and also many sounds and sights, and memories and hopes, do not presuppose pain. Of what then will these be the coming into being? There has not been lack of anything of which they could be the supplying anew.\r\n\r\nIn reply to those who bring forward the disgraceful pleasures one may say that these are not really pleasant. If things are pleasant to people of a vicious constitution, we must not suppose that they are also pleasant to people who are not vicious, just as we do not reason this way about the things that are wholesome or sweet or bitter to sick people, or ascribe whiteness to the things that seem white to those suffering from a disease of the eye. Or one might answer thus: that the pleasures are desirable, but not from these sources, as wealth is desirable, but not as the reward of betrayal, and health, but not at the cost of eating anything and everything. Or perhaps pleasures differ in kind. For those derived from noble sources are different from those derived from base sources, and one cannot experience the pleasure of the just person without actually being just, nor experience the pleasure of the musician without actually being a musician, and so on.\r\n\r\nThe fact, too, that a friend is different from a flatterer seems to make it plain that pleasure is not a good, or that pleasures are different in kind. For a friend is thought to spend time with us with a view to the good, while the flatterer spends time with us with a view to our pleasure, and the flatterer is reproached for his conduct while the friend is praised on the ground that each spends time with us for different ends. And no one would choose to live with the intellect of a child throughout his life, however much he were to be pleased at the things that children are pleased at, nor to get enjoyment by doing some most disgraceful deed, though he were never to feel any pain in consequence. And there are many things we should be keen about even if they brought no pleasure: for example, seeing, remembering, knowing, possessing the virtues. If pleasures necessarily do accompany these, that makes no difference, we should choose these even if no pleasure resulted. It seems to be clear, then, that neither is pleasure the highest good nor is all pleasure desirable, and that some pleasures are desirable in themselves, differing in kind or in their sources from the others. So much for the things that are said about pleasure and pain.<\/span>","rendered":"

Nor again, if pleasure is not a quality, does it follow that it is not a good. For the activities of virtue are not qualities either, nor is happiness.<\/p>\n

They say, however, that the good is determinate, while pleasure is indeterminate, because it admits of degrees. Now if it is from the feeling of pleasure that they judge thus, the same will be true of justice and the other virtues, in respect of which we plainly say that people of a certain character are more or less just or virtuous, and an action more or less in accordance with these virtues. For people may be more just or brave, and it is possible also to act justly or temperately more or less.<\/p>\n

But if their judgement is based on the various pleasures, surely they are not stating the real cause, if in fact some pleasures are unmixed and others mixed. Again, just as health admits of degrees without being indeterminate, why should not pleasure? The same proportion is not found in all things, nor a single proportion always in the same thing, but it may be relaxed and yet persist up to a point, and it may differ in degree. The case of pleasure also may therefore be of this kind.<\/p>\n

Again, they assume that the good is perfect while movements and comings into being are imperfect, and try to exhibit pleasure as being a movement and a coming into being. But they do not seem to be right even in saying that it is a movement. For speed and slowness are thought to be proper to every movement, and if a movement (for example, that of the universe) has not speed or slowness in itself, it has it in relation to something else. But neither of these things is true of pleasure. For while we may become<\/em> pleased quickly as we may become<\/em> angry quickly, we cannot be<\/em> pleased quickly, not even in relation to someone else, while we can walk, or grow, or the like, quickly. While, then, we can change quickly or slowly into<\/em> a state of pleasure, we cannot quickly exhibit the activity of pleasure, that is, we cannot quickly be<\/em> pleased. Again, how can pleasure be a coming into being? It is not thought that any chance thing can come out of any chance thing, but that a thing is dissolved into that out of which it comes into being. And pain would be the destruction of that of which pleasure is the coming into being.<\/p>\n

They say, too, that pain is the lack of that which is according to nature, and pleasure is replenishment. But these experiences are bodily. If then pleasure is replenishment with that which is according to nature, that which feels pleasure will be that in which the replenishment takes place, namely, the body. But that is not thought to be the case. Therefore, the replenishment is not pleasure, though one could be pleased when replenishment is taking place, just as one could be pained if one was being operated on. [But that doesn’t mean that the pain one is feeling and the fact that one is being operated on are the same thing. So also, the fact that one is being replenished and the feeling of pleasure are not the same thing.]<\/p>\n

The opinion that pleasure is replenishment seems to be based on the pains and pleasures connected with nutrition; on the fact that when people have been short of food and have felt pain beforehand they are pleased by the replenishment of eating. But this does not happen with all pleasures. For the pleasures of learning and, among the sensuous pleasures, those of smell, and also many sounds and sights, and memories and hopes, do not presuppose pain. Of what then will these be the coming into being? There has not been lack of anything of which they could be the supplying anew.<\/p>\n

In reply to those who bring forward the disgraceful pleasures one may say that these are not really pleasant. If things are pleasant to people of a vicious constitution, we must not suppose that they are also pleasant to people who are not vicious, just as we do not reason this way about the things that are wholesome or sweet or bitter to sick people, or ascribe whiteness to the things that seem white to those suffering from a disease of the eye. Or one might answer thus: that the pleasures are desirable, but not from these sources, as wealth is desirable, but not as the reward of betrayal, and health, but not at the cost of eating anything and everything. Or perhaps pleasures differ in kind. For those derived from noble sources are different from those derived from base sources, and one cannot experience the pleasure of the just person without actually being just, nor experience the pleasure of the musician without actually being a musician, and so on.<\/p>\n

The fact, too, that a friend is different from a flatterer seems to make it plain that pleasure is not a good, or that pleasures are different in kind. For a friend is thought to spend time with us with a view to the good, while the flatterer spends time with us with a view to our pleasure, and the flatterer is reproached for his conduct while the friend is praised on the ground that each spends time with us for different ends. And no one would choose to live with the intellect of a child throughout his life, however much he were to be pleased at the things that children are pleased at, nor to get enjoyment by doing some most disgraceful deed, though he were never to feel any pain in consequence. And there are many things we should be keen about even if they brought no pleasure: for example, seeing, remembering, knowing, possessing the virtues. If pleasures necessarily do accompany these, that makes no difference, we should choose these even if no pleasure resulted. It seems to be clear, then, that neither is pleasure the highest good nor is all pleasure desirable, and that some pleasures are desirable in themselves, differing in kind or in their sources from the others. So much for the things that are said about pleasure and pain.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-250","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":245,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/249"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":720,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/250\/revisions\/720"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/245"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/250\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=250"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=250"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}